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Mike Rugnetta: Friends, hello,
and welcome to Never Post, a

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podcast for and about the
Internet. I'm your host, Mike

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Rugnetta. And in this archive
poll episode, we revisit episode

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seven of Never Post from April
2024 in my segment, the American

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car, about how the automobile
became one of the default

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filming locations for short form
vertical video. Question I pose

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at the end of the segment, I
think, remains mostly open. What

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development is in store for the
car as a filming location?

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Will more people engage in more
extreme personalization, or will

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we move on from the car as we
did, at least in some senses,

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from the bedroom? And if we do
move on, what location is next?

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One half answer that I have, at
least, is that we have, I think,

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moved on slightly from the car,
and the new filming location

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that has replaced it or
augmented it is everywhere. I

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think below the technical
conveniences of the car's

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privacy as a filming location,
it also generally protects

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against something not really
discussed in the segment,

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embarrassment. There is or maybe
was at this point, a kind of low

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level mortification inherent to
filming in public, to being seen

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in your desire to be seen on the
sidewalk, in the restaurant, at

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the grocery store, in the gym,
and so on.

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As the practice of creating
short form vertical video has

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normalized for all sorts of
reasons, it has maybe ironically

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become less cringe to film
yourself wherever you happen to

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be with technology racing to
meet this willingness in things

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like wireless battery powered
Bluetooth microphones and camera

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glasses. All this is to say
nothing of the age at which one

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desires to make short form
video, the age where one can get

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or reasonably needs a car, and
the, I think, probably

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increasing gap between those two
numbers. So does the moving

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outside of short form video
spell the death of the car as a

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filming location? I don't think
so. Just this week, I saw a

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newscaster reporting on the
cyclosporiasis parasite outbreak

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in The US with a lot full of
freshly purchased veggies in the

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passenger seat of her car.

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A few days ago, I'm sitting in
my car like I am now. It's 04:30

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in the afternoon. I've arrived
early to our daughter's daycare

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for pickup. I have fifteen
minutes to kill, the most

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unshapely amount of time.
Neither a fleeting ten nor a

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productive twenty.

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Fifteen is the perfect interval
to simply lose. So I open

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TikTok. Fried Indian Before
long, I'm watching a man in a

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slightly too large lilac dress
shirt and matching striped

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necktie. He's in his mid
twenties, I'd wager with brown

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hair and a thin beard. It's a
food review with all the gusto

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and overstatement one expects
from short form social video

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about eating.

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This

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Speaker 2: is the peak of my
life right here.

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Mike Rugnetta: He says, of the
butter chicken coated naan that

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he's folding into his mouth. He
moves on to spoonfuls of rice

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slathered with the same. The
curry oozing out of Take our

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whole bean a fountain

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Speaker 2: come to my

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Mike Rugnetta: like you might
see on the dessert table of an

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office function, burbling
chocolate to be drizzled on

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strawberries pre poked with
toothpicks. The appliance is two

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feet tall ish, a gurgling spout
on top and two plastic domes

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with a recirculating reservoir
below.

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Speaker 2: But you know what? It
adds flavor. Maybe next time

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I'll dip

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Mike Rugnetta: He tilts an
aluminum container of rice,

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squeezing it under the lowest
dome. And I notice he's managed

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to avoid getting any of this on
his shirt and tie. Miraculous

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given that this whole scene has
played out in the driver's seat

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of his car. I think that cars
today are almost the exact

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equivalent of the great gothic
cathedrals, Roland Barthes

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writes in the opening line of
his 1957 essay, The New Citroen.

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I mean, the supreme creation of
an era, he continues.

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Conceived with passion by
unknown artists and consumed in

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image, if not in usage, by a
whole population which

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appropriates them as a purely
magical object. Barth was

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writing about the Citroen DS 19,
designed by a sculptor and an

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aeronautical engineer,
considered one of the more

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beautiful vehicles ever
manufactured and a significant

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milestone in the mechanical
development of the automobile in

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the twentieth century. But Barth
may as well have been writing

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about Luke Food's car, the one
with the butter chicken fountain

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in it, which appears to be an
undercover green Kia Soul. The

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car is a magical object in that
it is unbelievable even when

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directly beheld. Like a magic
trick, endless effort is

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expended in some out of sight
place to make the work done in

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public seem as impossible as it
is also inevitable.

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A lady cannot be sewn in half
and that the image is so well

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known, it practically defines
the performance of magic. We

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assent to its contradiction. A
pickup truck cannot be angry,

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but yet we've all been in
suburban grocery store parking

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lots on a Saturday afternoon
staring down these embarrassing

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behemoths. This is what Bart
means when he says cars are

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consumed in image and usage.
They're machines which serve a

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purpose, but they're also maybe
more so symbols which signify

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things about themselves and so
then more significantly, about

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the people who drive them.

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The first time I noticed the car
was David After Dentist in 2009,

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in which David DeVore junior,
having had anesthesia to remove

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an extra tooth, asks his father
filming on a flip cam. Is this

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real life?

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Speaker 2: Yeah. This is real
life.

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Mike Rugnetta: He's seven years
old in the video and buckled

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into the back seat of some
stationary vehicle. The large

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rear window frames blown out
trees in the afternoon light.

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The black leather of the car
looks new. When David screams

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Speaker 2: Stay in your seat.

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Mike Rugnetta: And slumps
explaining that he doesn't feel

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tired. I don't feel tired.

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Speaker 2: You don't?

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Mike Rugnetta: No? The deadened
sound of the car interior is

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unmistakable and evocative. This
video needs the car. David is

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enclosed, protected, in transit,
between states. The car is in

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public yet its own kind of
private space where his father

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films this first surgery for the
benefit of his mother before he

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uploads the video to YouTube for
the rest of the family, not

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realizing there's an option to
make the video, like the car

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itself, private.

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The intertwining of social media
and the automobile makes some

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sense. The web remade a world
only recently remade by cars.

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Both are used to navigate
infrastructure which is now

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integral to mandatory for in
many ways, contemporary life.

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The car was the engine of early
travel vlogs. It was the safe

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space of cap wearing, sunglass
clad, tough guy conspiracy

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theorists.

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It remains the thrumming heart
of van life and alongside the

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bathroom, it's become a default
setting for short form vertical

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video.

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Speaker 2: Just you know mean?
Because here's the deal. Right?

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Come here. In the great words of
little John, what?

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Mike Rugnetta: It's four thirty
eight in the afternoon. I

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continue to scroll. And not long
after Luke Foods, I arrive at

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Taco Reacts, known mostly for
reaction videos. He shows a clip

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of someone else's content before
inserting his own commentary.

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Speaker 3: The last time you saw
someone with an Audi?

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Speaker 4: Early two thousands,
It's been a while.

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Speaker 2: It it it it depends
because the neighbors got one

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that he drives every day unless
you're talking about the other

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one and then in that case,
you're damn right.

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Mike Rugnetta: He's a bearded
white guy seated almost always

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in a four door Ford f one fifty
pickup. Out of the rear windows

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of his truck, you may see a
house across a suburban street,

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a parking lot, a tree line. We
often join him for lunch as he

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unwraps fast food packages. The
interior roof of the truck

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features a growing number of
morale patches. The easiest of

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which to make out is for Montana
Knife Co.

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There's also a polar bear and
what looks like a fighter jet.

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Taco, known elsewhere as Paul b,
for whom Taco is a kind of

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character. Taco looks like a
Ford f one fifty owner insofar

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as such a thing has a look. His
beard is long, dark, and

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manicured. He wears a structured
baseball cap with an elk on it

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and an arrowhead necklace and
sometimes reflective sunglasses.

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In the back seat of his truck,
you can occasionally see arrows

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with their bright fletching.
Scrolling through Taco's videos,

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reacting to a woman holding a
snake, reacting to someone

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smashing a camera lens, a man
saying he wouldn't allow his

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wife to go to the club, a cat
eating a french fry, I find

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myself surprised. Taco seems non
confrontationally accepting is

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maybe one way to put it. He
looks confused and dismayed at

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the guy saying he won't let his
wife go to the club, but he

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remains silent, like he doesn't
wanna cause trouble. Elsewhere,

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he quips with classic millennial
affliction about D and D and

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Harry Potter.

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Are these the reactions of a
Ford f one fifty owner? One with

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a baseball cap and reflective
sunglasses? What do I think the

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reactions of a Ford f one fifty
owner should be?

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Speaker 2: As a representative
of to boop or not to boop, boop

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the fuck out of that thing. Give
it all the love in the world.

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Make sure nothing can ever harm
it. Ever. Ever.

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Mike Rugnetta: In 2014, writer
and programmer Paul Ford wrote

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The American Room, an essay
chronicling the background

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environments of YouTube videos.
The first time I noticed the

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room, he writes in the opening
line of his essay, was in the

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Pneuma Pneuma video of 2004,
circulated pre YouTube in which

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a New Jersey man named Gary
Brolzma danced in his chair to a

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Moldovan pop song called
Dragosta Dinte. Ford notes the

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sameness of the rooms depicted
in many YouTube videos. Their

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emptiness, their off white
color, their size, large. The

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rooms look the way they do for a
few reasons.

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First, he explains, because of
standards. Sheet rock is cut in

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certain sizes. Certain house
plans are easier to come by,

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which are themselves easier to
come by than skilled labor to

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build them. The rooms are empty,
he suggests, simply because such

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large rooms are difficult,
meaning expensive, to fill with

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art, knickknacks, furniture.
Quote, you could judge those

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rooms and say that America has a
paucity of visual imagination,

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that we live in a kind of
wasteland.

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Or you could draw another
conclusion and note that America

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might be a little more broke
than it wants to show, end

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quote. And so the empty American
room emerges and inside it, the

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viral YouTube star. The American
room has lost its primacy in the

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last decade. First, because the
frequency of sudden and

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unexpected viral mega hits.

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Speaker 2: The

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Mike Rugnetta: one off video
produced ad hoc like Pneumonuma

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and without a manicured
background.

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Speaker 4: Hi, guys. So this is
my first video blog.

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Mike Rugnetta: Has waned.
YouTube is now known for its

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creators.

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Speaker 2: Once again, behind me
are a 100 people.

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Mike Rugnetta: Professionals who
seek notoriety and influence

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repeatedly on purpose. YouTube
videos are no longer posts.

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They're weightier than that and
with that weight, they exhibit

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increasingly TV like production,
makeup, lighting, sets. On

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television shows, the characters
rooms are filled with art,

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knickknacks, ephemera and
signifiers, Ford writes.

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Continuing, think of the rooms
in the Big Bang Theory, constant

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visual stimulus.

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Always something for the eye to
do. YouTube audiences too need

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something for their eyes to do
now. If not a full set, at the

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very least, a shelf with some
stuff on it. The beige wall just

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doesn't cut it anymore. The
American room has fallen from

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favor, thanks also to the
ascendancy of the mobile phone

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and a locale even more suited
for casual video production.

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The car is a natural setting for
social video, less so for

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podcasts. Not only do its
qualities obviate the need for

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additional production equipment,
you couldn't fit most of it in a

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car anyway. Neither could you
fit a bookshelf of Funko Pops,

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your sword collection, or a grid
of old LP sleeves. It's a

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filming locale that excuses and
addresses the stress of bare

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beige walls of producing
constant visual stimulus. The

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American room is stationary, but
the American car is action,

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movement, motion.

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Even while parked, it's always
in media race going, arriving,

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like David after Dentist between
states, and so always already a

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place of excitement and progress
before the action even begins.

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It's also no less a personal
space. Jean Baudrillard in the

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system of objects called the car
an eccentric relative to the

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household. In the new Citroen,
Bart notes that car interiors

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were becoming increasingly
homely, abandoning the

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mechanoscientific design
language suggesting a quote, the

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alchemy of speed for a more
domestic feel. Quote, more like

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the working surface of a modern
kitchen than the control room of

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a factory.

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The car, Baudrillard writes,
makes it possible to be

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simultaneously at home and
further away from home. A lot of

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people make videos in their car,
but I think principally of the

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videos I see of mostly women
screaming.

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Speaker 5: Do you ever just

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Mike Rugnetta: And crying inside
of them. Sometimes ironically.

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Sometimes it's hard to tell.
Often, hold a large beverage.

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Speaker 5: This is my Starbucks
drink today. I don't know if you

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guys have tried this.

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Mike Rugnetta: This is a media
type of such specificity. You

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might bulk at the idea that it
comprises a genre until you hear

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Evelyn from the Internets ask

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Speaker 5: If you don't have an
automobile, where do you scream?

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Like, where do you just let the
proverbial chopper sing?

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Because, baby, within these
walls, in this Toyota, in my

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Corolla, oh, I don't play. I
gets down.

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Mike Rugnetta: A projectile and
a domicile is how Baudrillard

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describes the automobile. The
car too is an abode, he writes,

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but an exceptional one. A closed
realm of intimacy, but one

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released from the constraints
that usually apply to the

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intimacy of the home. In some
ways, for some people, the car

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is more home than home. My
fifteen minutes are nearly up.

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I land on Shannon Blake. One of
Blake's videos has been going

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around lately. She's seated in a
car with a white cowboy hat on.

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There are fake leaves and moss
pinned to the roof of her car. A

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00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:13,315
dream catcher hangs over one
shoulder and a Nazar over the

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other.

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She wears at least five
necklaces of beads, shells,

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feathers. Her hands are covered
in rings with rocks and

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crystals. Her wavy platinum hair
fans out from under the hat. She

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wears three nose rings, one lip
ring, and at least six earrings.

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She raps about taking Ayahuasca
and about how the pyramids were

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built for time travel.

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Someone interrupts Rick, ah,
this is a stitch. An

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00:18:41,105 --> 00:18:44,225
archaeologist enters the frame,
noting that since this video has

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become so popular, he sees fit
to set a couple things straight.

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The pyramids, for one, were not
built by aliens. They are not

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time travel devices. This is one
of the reasons Shannon's video

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has been so ubiquitous.

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Endless people lining up to pick
apart her new age clap trap. Why

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00:19:02,255 --> 00:19:08,575
I wonder have I not seen anyone
pick apart her car? Shannon at

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00:19:08,575 --> 00:19:12,495
one point lived in her car. She
posted pictures of her car, her

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00:19:12,495 --> 00:19:17,470
home, which she named Nancy in
2016, a few years after her

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daughter was born. I put links
in the show notes if you wanna

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00:19:20,110 --> 00:19:20,750
go look.

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People joke that Shannon is the
final boss of Burning Man, but

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she may very well be the final
boss of short form vertical

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00:19:28,510 --> 00:19:33,115
videos shot in a car. Say what
you must about her bedazzled co

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00:19:33,115 --> 00:19:38,075
opted shamanism obscured by weed
smoke. Her frames are amazing.

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Having taken the American car,
in this case, a late model white

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00:19:41,835 --> 00:19:45,275
Ford Bronco as a filming
location to its logical

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00:19:45,275 --> 00:19:49,170
endpoint, customizing,
communicating with the interior

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00:19:49,170 --> 00:19:53,810
of her vehicle as much and
possibly more than its exterior.

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The Ford Bronco is gone,
transformed by whatever aura

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Shannon is at the center of.

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00:20:00,450 --> 00:20:05,545
Her frame feels very purposeful.
Not at all like an automobile,

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but like a home. Personal. Lived
in. Full.

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00:20:14,345 --> 00:20:18,610
I think of Paul Ford. I think of
the emptiness of the American

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00:20:18,610 --> 00:20:22,770
home. The rooms in the Big Bang
theory, constant visual

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00:20:22,770 --> 00:20:27,490
stimulus, always something for
the eye to do. For Ford and

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00:20:27,490 --> 00:20:32,125
Barth, home is marked by less
visual complexity, not more.

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Blake no longer lives in her
car.

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I've seen videos of her house.
It's huge. But her car

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00:20:38,845 --> 00:20:44,060
nonetheless feels lived in.
Another vehicular visual magic

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00:20:44,060 --> 00:20:47,660
trick. Another contradiction to
which I ascent.

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00:20:48,620 --> 00:20:52,620
I wonder what Shannon presages.
The professionalization of

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00:20:52,620 --> 00:20:56,665
YouTube spelled the demise of
the American room popularly.

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00:20:56,665 --> 00:20:58,665
What does the
professionalization of TikTok

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00:20:58,665 --> 00:21:02,905
spell for the American car? Will
we look back on the empty

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00:21:02,905 --> 00:21:05,865
automobiles of TikTok? No morale
patches.

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00:21:05,865 --> 00:21:09,590
No dream catchers. Just
screaming women in their cups.

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00:21:09,910 --> 00:21:14,070
As quaint artifacts of a simpler
time before we realized what

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00:21:14,070 --> 00:21:17,750
those spaces could accommodate
and what space will arrive to

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00:21:17,750 --> 00:21:21,815
address the stressors of not
wanting to deck out ones?

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00:21:22,295 --> 00:21:29,975
Corolla, or Kia Soul, or Ford
Bronco, or Ford f one fifty. I

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00:21:29,975 --> 00:21:31,655
look back into my own car.

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00:21:32,390 --> 00:21:37,510
I see dog blankets, a child's
car seat, an empty cooler that I

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00:21:37,510 --> 00:21:45,030
should clean. My timer goes off.
My fifteen minutes are up. Lost

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00:21:46,595 --> 00:21:55,075
thoroughly. Do you make videos
in your car?

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00:21:55,075 --> 00:21:58,755
Do any of your favorite creators
make videos primarily in their

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00:21:58,755 --> 00:22:02,420
cars? Why do you think it makes
for such an effective filming

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00:22:02,420 --> 00:22:06,020
location and what does it
signify? Also, outside the scope

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00:22:06,020 --> 00:22:08,340
of this segment, but something I
mentioned briefly and I'm still

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00:22:08,340 --> 00:22:13,025
curious about, how did the
bathroom become another default

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00:22:13,025 --> 00:22:16,785
video setting for vertical
videos in the last few years?

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00:22:16,785 --> 00:22:19,905
Surely, there's something more
to it than the presence of a

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00:22:19,905 --> 00:22:25,425
mirror and good lighting. Call
us at (651) 615-5007.

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00:22:25,820 --> 00:22:29,340
Email us at
theneverpost@Gmail.com. Drop a

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00:22:29,340 --> 00:22:32,700
voice memo in our air table or
leave a comment on the website.

320
00:22:32,700 --> 00:22:36,060
There are links in the show
notes, and let us know what you

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00:22:36,060 --> 00:22:39,580
think. We may respond to your
comment in a future mailbag

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00:22:39,580 --> 00:22:53,045
episode. That is the archival
episode we have for you today.

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00:22:53,045 --> 00:22:56,890
If you'd like to listen to the
original upload with news and

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00:22:56,890 --> 00:23:00,650
interstitials, you can find a
link in the show notes. Never

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00:23:00,650 --> 00:23:04,890
Post is primarily listener
funded. So if you enjoyed this

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segment, please consider
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You can gain access to an ad
free member feed while helping

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us keep the show going. Never
Post's producers are Audrey

329
00:23:15,805 --> 00:23:18,765
Evans, Georgia Hampton, and the
mysterious doctor first name

330
00:23:18,765 --> 00:23:19,485
last name.

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00:23:19,485 --> 00:23:22,845
Our senior producer is Hans
Buto. Our executive producer is

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00:23:22,845 --> 00:23:26,125
Jason Oberholzer, and the show's
host, that's me, is Mike

333
00:23:26,125 --> 00:23:29,860
Rugnetta. Never Post is a
production of Charts and Leisure

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and is distributed by
Radiotopia.