Let’s watch some fire-spinning.
Watch: Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the drums. His brother on the spinning torches of flame.
Emily St. James was a senior correspondent for Vox, covering American identities. Before she joined Vox in 2014, she was the first TV editor of the A.V. Club.
In this clip from the Friday, July 3 episode of Hit Record on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt — which features a fire theme — actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt introduces footage of his late brother, Dan, whirling flame about the darkened sky like a spinning, one-man arsenal.
Look at that fire go.
The clip also doubles as a pretty great example of what HitRECord does best, which is bring together people from all over the world to create gigantic collages of imagery and sound. This scene, in particular, features Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the drums (which he would play as his brother spun flame), before several other musicians join him virtually, and it unfolds as something reminiscent of a Kutiman video.
But the real highlight is Dan’s fire-spinning. (You can watch Joseph talk about his brother here, in one of the season’s early highlights.) The darkened background gives way to his torches, twisting through the air. The spinner leaps and races about. And at all times, onlookers’ eyes are drawn to the jumping, jolting flame.
Humans have always been fascinated by fire, and in our popular mythology of ourselves, we began our march toward modernity when our oldest ancestors tamed this primal force. We may be many, many generations removed from the earliest humans, but we still maintain, on some level, their preoccupation with flame.
HitRECord on TV airs Fridays at 10 pm Eastern on Pivot.
See More:
