stay'n alive, ASL

The Lindsay Graham video compelled me to check for ASL cover of this song. It's one I used to practice decades ago and it's riddled with acutely non-signing phrasing, actually fairly weird phrasing for English.

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, staying alive, staying alive.

It's a repeated phrase that's too weird, I just can't even.

How would you show that?

There is a sign for "whether." My choice is to use "maybe" instead, and use it once, not twice. The structure is for English phrasing to fit the beat, but I give up on that with this song because it's just too weird.

And the sign for "whether" is based on the sign for "maybe" they're similar; weighing two plates as a scale for maybe, turned to fists with thumbs up for "whether." Here.

I'd change it to "maybe you brother or mother, continue live, continue live."

"Continue" is an eminently useful sign; stay put, keep going, persist, survive, keep on trucking, endure, last. The concept cloud around this sign applies to "staying alive" even without the "live" part.

This song has gratuitous phrases that do not contribute to the theme a line that's anti-rheme.

"We can try to understand" is very clearly shown in ASL while the following line is ill considered.

"The New York Times' effect on man."

There is a sign for "effect."  The sign for "humanity" is "people." (cycling Ps) In a sentence this looks like "NYT blast people. "

"Everybody shaking" is shown "dancing" the two-leg "v" sign shaking as dancing. Incidentally, I meant to say this yesterday in comments, that dancing can be anything. It can be shown as country line-dancing, a saloon kick dance, a ballerina, a ballroom, a disco, a skater, a snow-boarder, a swimmer, dangling from a hang-glider, a man dropping down in a parachute, the legs can be put on the floor of the opposing hand, the whole arm can be a platform for the legs.The legs can be made into a  fashion model legs on a catwalk crossing over each other, they can walk, run, jump, diving board, kneel down, anything that legs can do, limited only by imagination. It's an example of how the class and the book show the word, but not to limit you to what's shown, rather to get you started on using the configuration for anything your heart desires, a start for your own needs and your imagination.

How would you show the sound, "ah ah ah ah"? How would you stretch out the word, "alive?"

That "ah, ah" occurs in other songs, like Kiesza's "Hideaway." In that song it's "ew, ah, ah, ew .... ew, ah, ah, ew ..."

I decided to show "ah" as hands out, my body backs away from something with a jerk, like "ah, I'm surprised and not really sure about that" and "ew" as fingertips to my  mouth. The back and forth shows the thing that I hear. And that same somewhat repulse motion type of "ah " works for Staying Alive too. You can do 3 in a row where the hands stay in the same plce in front of your body while your body backs away from your hands in stages.

Okay, which one of these guys is your favorite? They're both fun. The whole class is fun. Which one is most clear to you?

One is actually dancing the song impersonating the movie, the other is showing the song.

I love it when they say "kicked around." There is a sign for kick.