One Day

This is the YouTube version. The song is by Mitisyahu, the Hebrew name and the stage name of Matthew Paul Miller, a Jewish American reggae singer and rapper with long blond hair, and side locks. He's a mess. As seen on stage dressed as a bum and in a coffee shop dressed even more poorly where he encountered a busker covering his song with a ukulele and joined in singing, a very poor recording that went viral possibly beyond his original recording with acoustic guitar. Frankly, this version is better than both of them, imao. It's production is better than both.

I knew this song would appeal to the kids tasked with interpreting it and to beginners and advanced signers eager to show it. I watched six videos and they all suck so hard it ruins the whole thing. 

YouTube [one day, asl] There is only one that comes close.

What follows is unhappy rant.

They are all fraught with one or another disqualifying imperfections, or several at once.

Here's the main problem. People are interpreting the meaning of the song, not showing it. They are interpreting the message of the song and forgetting about the melody, the beat, the poetry, the rhyme, the emphasis, the stretches and the up-tempos. They even ignore the repetitions. They take the main phrase "one day" and translate "will," "future," "look forward, and "dream." 

This video does all of that. They're interpreting the message of the song not transliterating the song. They love the song for its catchy tune and its message but what captivates a hearing person is not shared with deaf, rather they deliver an interpreted message. 

"As I say, don't take me soon" is interpreted "continue." 

"I never let it get me down" is interpreted "continue." 

That's so bad I can't even stand it. 

This brings up a flaw in the original song. 

"Sometimes in my own tears I drown

But I don't let it get me down." 

Doesn't make sense. If you are drowning in your own tears, you are already down and no sense of optimism changes that reality. Therefore, the lyrics are forced. They were forced to rhyme, not forced to make sense. 

But eh, whatever. It's a song. A poem. It doesn't need to make sense.

But the signer really does need to show "down" and not "depressed" and "drown," not sinking below water, and not merely head under water. Or else rhyme is forfeited. And say that on the beat. Not reversed, not substituted, not interpreted, and not however a revised version fits. 

The songwriter and singer made it fit a poetic beat. So you make it fit. If you don't, then it doesn't fit. And the song is gone. 

Every single phrase is interpreted down to meaninglessness. The song disappears entirely to kids holding up signs, "No violence" and the like. Phrases that are not in the song. They distorted the song beyond recognition. 

They pissed all over a beautiful song. 

They ALL do. 

This woman speaks very good sign but she doesn't give a shit about the actual song. She interprets the song into deaf phrasing so the meaning of each line is clear without bearing a single trace of its inspiring source. It's all messaging and no song. Zero song. 

The singer songwriter went to lengths to fashion the song just so and all of his work disappears in these translations. Every element of songwriting and of melodious singing is forfeited. None can keep up with the fast passages and have it make sense, so they don't. Instead they show something approximate, but just barely. There is no reggae, there is no rap, no beat, no rhyme, no stops. It all just glides along like Frank Sinatra. A deaf viewer would have no idea whatsoever about the essences of this song. All they get is an interpretation of its meaning, and bad interpretations at that. They're boring. The song is not boring, but the interpreters are. ALL of them are boring. 

And they all did their best to make a little video to communicate the song that they love.  FAIL!