I Hope There Are Quadruple Rainbows In Heaven
May 11, 2020 10:20 AM Subscribe
“Double Rainbow Guy” Paul Vasquez / yosemitebear has passed on at 57. (Modesto Bee, Washington Post, CNN)
🌈🌈
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:27 AM on May 11, 2020 [19 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:27 AM on May 11, 2020 [19 favorites]
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posted by Stilling Still Dreaming at 10:27 AM on May 11, 2020
posted by Stilling Still Dreaming at 10:27 AM on May 11, 2020
I can't believe I hadn't seen this before but I really get his awe. I live in similar country not far from him and captured this rainbow over Crane Valley a few weeks ago. Realistic sunsets are an emphasis of mine so I felt particularly fortunate to be able to create a fairly representative depiction but just like he saw, the real thing is something else. If that had been a double rainbow I probably would've had a similar reaction and lost it in the same way.
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:34 AM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by feloniousmonk at 10:34 AM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by WalkerWestridge at 10:45 AM on May 11, 2020
posted by WalkerWestridge at 10:45 AM on May 11, 2020
A cannabis grower and user, he said he wasn’t high when he shot the video. He told CNN that his solitude allowed him to connect to nature on a deep level and gave him a freedom most people could never understand.
“You can’t look at a rainbow anymore and not think about me,” he said.
True enough! I do think about him when I see one, especially a double one or one that's almost a circle. Rest in peace, sir.
posted by emjaybee at 10:49 AM on May 11, 2020 [9 favorites]
“You can’t look at a rainbow anymore and not think about me,” he said.
True enough! I do think about him when I see one, especially a double one or one that's almost a circle. Rest in peace, sir.
posted by emjaybee at 10:49 AM on May 11, 2020 [9 favorites]
May all your rainbows be double and on the other side of Oz.
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posted by Fizz at 10:51 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Fizz at 10:51 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
Godspeed, Double Rainbow Guy. All the way across the sky.
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:52 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:52 AM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
I actually once spent about an hour talking in a group with him in a Yosemite Bug Hostel hot tub just outside the park. Interesting person to say the least. Turns out there was a whole circuit of people who had become viral internet sensations and they all knew each other and interacted. While his reactions to the double rainbow were very authentic, he had been long looking for a way to have his videos make him famous. He also had married into a family of folks indigenous to the Yosemite Valley (he wasn't birth family tied to the area if i remember right) and was really involved in that community in some pretty inspiring ways. There were however some ways he seemed to leverage his celebrityness that made me uncomfortable. So basically complicated, like about every human walking on this planet. I hope he, like all beings, can find peace and radiate it out in whatever states his life force continues in. Rest in Peace.
posted by lips at 11:02 AM on May 11, 2020 [14 favorites]
posted by lips at 11:02 AM on May 11, 2020 [14 favorites]
Always loved his reaction.
Continue resting transparent, Paul!
posted by dobbs at 11:19 AM on May 11, 2020
Continue resting transparent, Paul!
posted by dobbs at 11:19 AM on May 11, 2020
RIP, rainbow-meme guy.
We used to live in Miami Beach back in the '90s. I worked for five years at a fancy-pants designer celebrity hotel right on the beach and would often set up while the sun was rising over the Atlantic. Between those sunrises and the various afternoon thunderstorms, we'd see double rainbows pretty often. It rains a LOT there... often very heavy downpours out of nowhere. You get used to it—in a way—after a while, but it still remains an awesome sight, in the true meaning of awesome. We are surrounded by awesome; always the awesome is around us.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:23 AM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
We used to live in Miami Beach back in the '90s. I worked for five years at a fancy-pants designer celebrity hotel right on the beach and would often set up while the sun was rising over the Atlantic. Between those sunrises and the various afternoon thunderstorms, we'd see double rainbows pretty often. It rains a LOT there... often very heavy downpours out of nowhere. You get used to it—in a way—after a while, but it still remains an awesome sight, in the true meaning of awesome. We are surrounded by awesome; always the awesome is around us.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:23 AM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
About the rain in Miami: I used to ride my bike a lot then. And I'd sometimes get caught in those downpours. The rain could come down so hard it was downright terrifying. And rain like that certainly wouldn't make the news. Subtropical rainstorms are just so common and a way of life down there. Miami has this mystique of sun and synthetic celebrity around it. But after five years living there, its the rain that really sticks with me even now. Horizontal walls of rain, and the aftermath of impossible, towering, flickering clouds as the evening came on.
I'm going crazy here, cooped up, long-term unemployed, looking at the distant, receding dead-end of a 20 year career. Floating adrift in a 30-year love relationship that feels sometimes like some old shopping list that's still in a drawer among a stack of photos printed double because I wanted extra copies. I don't know why but this post hit me hard. It's not a good day.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:34 AM on May 11, 2020 [5 favorites]
I'm going crazy here, cooped up, long-term unemployed, looking at the distant, receding dead-end of a 20 year career. Floating adrift in a 30-year love relationship that feels sometimes like some old shopping list that's still in a drawer among a stack of photos printed double because I wanted extra copies. I don't know why but this post hit me hard. It's not a good day.
posted by SoberHighland at 11:34 AM on May 11, 2020 [5 favorites]
I actually never watched more than a few seconds of that clip before.
Too bad - it’s really an authentic expression of awesomeness.
And yeah, like @grumpybear69 above emoted, he deserves a
🌈🌈
posted by growabrain at 12:07 PM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
Too bad - it’s really an authentic expression of awesomeness.
And yeah, like @grumpybear69 above emoted, he deserves a
🌈🌈
posted by growabrain at 12:07 PM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Don.Kinsayder at 12:16 PM on May 11, 2020
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 12:16 PM on May 11, 2020
This video brought me such joy at a very stressful time. My mom had just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. I would go sit with her during her chemo treatments. I showed her this video and we laughed so hard we almost got kicked out of the cancer treatment center.
Thanks for the laughs, and joy, double-rainbow guy.
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posted by fyrebelley at 3:09 PM on May 11, 2020 [8 favorites]
Thanks for the laughs, and joy, double-rainbow guy.
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posted by fyrebelley at 3:09 PM on May 11, 2020 [8 favorites]
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posted by Token Meme at 4:45 PM on May 11, 2020
posted by Token Meme at 4:45 PM on May 11, 2020
🌈🌈
posted by aneel at 4:56 PM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by aneel at 4:56 PM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]
Hi SoberHIghland.
Well lookee-there, my phone’s autocorrect choices included Sorbet High Land for your name.
Now THAT sounds like a thought worth holding onto.
posted by pipoquinha at 6:04 PM on May 11, 2020
Well lookee-there, my phone’s autocorrect choices included Sorbet High Land for your name.
Now THAT sounds like a thought worth holding onto.
posted by pipoquinha at 6:04 PM on May 11, 2020
Turns out there was a whole circuit of people who had become viral internet sensations and they all knew each other and interacted.
I'm thinking a mini-series. Couple of FBI agents investigate a serial killer who is taking out the members of this fellowship. Each episode is another viro-celebs ingenious murder, the ongoing sleuthing and flash-backs to how the victim went viral.
Keep it dark, except for the sunlit flash-backs. Sprinkle it with unattributed quotes from, say, Mervyn Peake. Explain nothing.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:22 PM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm thinking a mini-series. Couple of FBI agents investigate a serial killer who is taking out the members of this fellowship. Each episode is another viro-celebs ingenious murder, the ongoing sleuthing and flash-backs to how the victim went viral.
Keep it dark, except for the sunlit flash-backs. Sprinkle it with unattributed quotes from, say, Mervyn Peake. Explain nothing.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:22 PM on May 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
I actually saw a double rainbow when I was canoeing about in a lake, vaguely around the same era as this Internet thingy?
It was glorious!
posted by ovvl at 6:59 PM on May 11, 2020
It was glorious!
posted by ovvl at 6:59 PM on May 11, 2020
> I can't believe I hadn't seen this before but I really get his awe. I live in similar country not far from him and captured this rainbow over Crane Valley a few weeks ago.
The wife and I were talking about a lake right around that way this very morning. Saying man, wish we were /there/ right now. We've only been once in the offseason when it was pretty deserted but it seemed like an OK place to be right now maybe. There's a storm blowing over me now maybe came from down your way. Keepin' an eye out for a last minute rainbow.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 8:11 PM on May 11, 2020
The wife and I were talking about a lake right around that way this very morning. Saying man, wish we were /there/ right now. We've only been once in the offseason when it was pretty deserted but it seemed like an OK place to be right now maybe. There's a storm blowing over me now maybe came from down your way. Keepin' an eye out for a last minute rainbow.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 8:11 PM on May 11, 2020
I've had similar moments in nature and I am grateful that Paul shared his moment with us. It brought joy to a lot of people. How many of us will ever get to do that?
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Rest easy, man. And thank you.
posted by Dokterrock at 12:27 AM on May 12, 2020
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Rest easy, man. And thank you.
posted by Dokterrock at 12:27 AM on May 12, 2020
Aw man. I just heard the news this morning when KEXP played Rainbow Connection in his honor and ran over here to make a post.
The gist of my post was about how different I view the video now than I did 10 years ago. Back then, it was "hah ha funny-stoner man, but we all kinda have been there" and we snarked and he was trotted out on Late Night Talk shows, and the inevitable attempts to cash in (please don't click that).
Nowadays, when managing to hold onto hope is a literal lifeline, "Double Rainbow" is powerful and viewing his raw, spiritual ecstasy reminds us that we have immortal souls. And maybe we don't really have immortal souls, but I choose to live in a world populated by people who do believe that the beauty in the world can bring you to your knees with laughter and tears. Thank you, Bear.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:50 AM on May 12, 2020
The gist of my post was about how different I view the video now than I did 10 years ago. Back then, it was "hah ha funny-stoner man, but we all kinda have been there" and we snarked and he was trotted out on Late Night Talk shows, and the inevitable attempts to cash in (please don't click that).
Nowadays, when managing to hold onto hope is a literal lifeline, "Double Rainbow" is powerful and viewing his raw, spiritual ecstasy reminds us that we have immortal souls. And maybe we don't really have immortal souls, but I choose to live in a world populated by people who do believe that the beauty in the world can bring you to your knees with laughter and tears. Thank you, Bear.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:50 AM on May 12, 2020
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posted by Silvery Fish at 10:24 AM on May 11, 2020