The Day Wondermutt Died

December 31, 2008

I work at a web services provider and we host our own data center. Every once in a while, a server becomes obsolete and these guys decide to “retire” it, meaning they toss it off the roof of the building into a gravel parking lot. This server’s name was Wondermutt and here you’ll witness it’s last moments.

What you’ll see is simultaneous video perspectives from the roof and below, blended in a way to reveal it all. The owner is the one who runs into the frame to finish-off the job. I thought it all reminiscent of the famous scene in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” with the monolith and the monkey destroying things with his club. I happened to have Richard Strauss’ famous introduction to “Also sprach Zarathustra” on hand (though, it’s an inferior version) so I hooked it all together. It’s all sort of obvious… but I have to admit that I like the little synchronicities that occur throughout.

  array(1) {
  [0]=>
  array(23) {
    ["id"]=>
    int(47305177)
    ["title"]=>
    string(23) "The Day Wondermutt Died"
    ["description"]=>
    string(332) "On December 31, 2008, the company I worked for retired an old web server (named "Wondermutt") by throwing it off the roof of our building and then smashing it to bits with a Louisville Slugger.  Why?  I'm not sure, but it WAS fun and the guy wielding the bat was the owner, so I didn't bother asking questions.  I just made a video."
    ["url"]=>
    string(26) "https://vimeo.com/47305177"
    ["upload_date"]=>
    string(19) "2012-08-10 09:04:49"
    ["thumbnail_small"]=>
    string(112) "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/329091043-219005ba0340525e2d6716a005c6530a8ca5c34ad48ed1a85cd10a4b248bfe9c-d_100x75"
    ["thumbnail_medium"]=>
    string(113) "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/329091043-219005ba0340525e2d6716a005c6530a8ca5c34ad48ed1a85cd10a4b248bfe9c-d_200x150"
    ["thumbnail_large"]=>
    string(109) "https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/329091043-219005ba0340525e2d6716a005c6530a8ca5c34ad48ed1a85cd10a4b248bfe9c-d_640"
    ["user_id"]=>
    int(5384888)
    ["user_name"]=>
    string(16) "Robbie Schneider"
    ["user_url"]=>
    string(30) "https://vimeo.com/zerodegreesk"
    ["user_portrait_small"]=>
    string(45) "https://i.vimeocdn.com/portrait/1751998_30x30"
    ["user_portrait_medium"]=>
    string(45) "https://i.vimeocdn.com/portrait/1751998_75x75"
    ["user_portrait_large"]=>
    string(47) "https://i.vimeocdn.com/portrait/1751998_100x100"
    ["user_portrait_huge"]=>
    string(47) "https://i.vimeocdn.com/portrait/1751998_300x300"
    ["stats_number_of_likes"]=>
    int(0)
    ["stats_number_of_plays"]=>
    int(13)
    ["stats_number_of_comments"]=>
    int(0)
    ["duration"]=>
    int(113)
    ["width"]=>
    int(640)
    ["height"]=>
    int(480)
    ["tags"]=>
    string(23) "destruction, web server"
    ["embed_privacy"]=>
    string(8) "anywhere"
  }
}