Pump it, interpreted in ASL by Bjorn Storm, Nyke Prince, Keith Wann

Every movement you make means something. My dogs taught me that.

If I tied my shoes that means, “Yay! We’re going outside for an adventure!”
If my keys jingled that means, “Yay! We’re going outside for an adventure!”
If I zipped up my jacket that means, “Yay! We’re going outside for an adventure!”
If I put on my sunglasses that means, “Yay! We’re going outside for an adventure!”

See the richness of meaning in movement?

And going outside for an adventure means it’s time to get excited. Really exited. For all the fun that’s in store for us. So my dog taught me to talk to her first before busting any kind of move. They all did.

Before tying my shoes, handling keys, zipping up a jacket or putting on sunglasses I must first talk directly to the dog and say, “Tera, I’m going outside. (Yay! Excitement. Hopping around) But you must stay here. (Ears back. Bummed out. Hopes dashed.) And you must be a good soldier and guard the whole house. (Comes to attention) From intruders (Smartens up) I’m putting you in charge to make sure nothing bad happens while I’m gone. (Rigid. Focused. Resolved. Serious.)

And there is no hopping around like and excited child in full abandon. And there is no trash pulled out and nervously chewed to a billion bits in anxiety of being abandoned.

My dogs taught me how I must talk to them. Because every movement means something.

And that’s dogs’ intelligence. Even more so with humans. Every motion you make transmits meaning.

The Federal Reserve Bank has a very nice cafeteria that compares favoraby with the better restaurants downtown. I was sitting at a table by myself one afternoon gazing down on the 16th Street Mall with my attention on a family group at the corner of Arapahoe who were beginning to separate, on the far side of the street. A woman was holding a small girl in her arms and the woman told the child to say goodbye. The girl stretched out her arm and her tiny hand held in a flattened position waved “bye-bye” and up in the cafeteria behind bulletproof glass I heard a specific young girl’s voice speak directly into my ear, clear as a bell,”Bob” not as a sound from my mind, rather, a physical sound in my ear.

That’s how strongly movements have meaning. You can actually hear them.

I’m starting to key into this guy’s handwriting. Bjorn Storm. I’m getting him well. I can hear him. He departs imaginatively from textbook versions of signs while adhering to their classifiers so that “radio” is not formed with an “R” at the ears, and then “stereo” is two of his his stylized radio signs, and “louder” is the whole volume of everything  in the room as if it were water in a pool that we’re in. “Let’s get it on” is shown such as “bring it to me,” and “way we do it” is shown “we, right here.” And when Kyke kicks in her chorus of  “ooooh” they are formed with an “O” and her “la la la” is formed with those letters. The two are stylizing all over the place while still being comprehensible.

As for myself, for Technotronic’s  “Pump Up the Jam", I used a bicycle pump motion.  Bjorn stylizes an outburst for “pump it” enhanced in post processing with more arms as an Hindu deity.

“Damn” really is a “D” shaken and pushed forward. I’ve only seen it expressed amusingly, tritely and followed with an “it” just to be silly. It's not a useful expression. And now I’m seeing the same thing expressed as a vocalization upon seeing a hot woman, and repeated. Another stylized deviation that still adheres to the standard. His motions are readable. Every motion has meaning. And when you key in then you can actually hear him say "d-a-a-a-a-a-a-m-n" in a voice your brain provides for him, not the musical word that's given.

The guy who comes into the room at the beginning and is shown rocking out at home at the end is Keith Wann who grew up in a deaf household. He’s a comedian with a whole series of videos on YouTube of himself on stage entertaining with stories told in American Sign.

I would really like to meet these goofballs. They’re my type of people. We’d have a lot of fun.

Bjorn asks viewers to watch this in high definition and full screen. I agree it makes a big difference.

I'm trying to get you to appreciate how people stylize this language, put it in their own handwriting, so that it becomes highly idiosyncratic. And I really like the style of these people.