Man trapped in Vegas airport makes iPhone music video
Traveler Richard Dunn is stuck overnight in Las Vegas' McCarran Airport. So what does he do? Channel Celine Dion, that's what.
Who wants to live all by themselves?
Who wants to even be in Las Vegas airport all by themselves?
Being all by yourself stifles your creativity, numbs your brain, and renders you lost in an insensate world.
There again, if you are stuck in the Vegas airport, the victim of circumstance and airline overbooking, why not use all the talents at your disposal to create a lasting monument to your aloneness?
This was Richard Dunn's choice, after Delta offered him bumping-off vouchers, which meant he had to wait until 6 a.m. for a flight.
What to do? He could lie down on uncomfortable plastic chairs. Or he could go to work and do what everyone in Vegas sacrifices their lives to do: entertain the masses.
Dunn is a lighting designer, after all.
So he whipped out his iPhone and used this deserted airport as his purpose-built set. He knew that he wanted to make a music video, but which song? It had to be one about being alone. It wasn't Southside Johnny's "Trapped Again."
All by myself from Richard Dunn on Vimeo.
He told CBC that he couldn't imagine what song would be right.
Until: "Our dear Canadian sister started streaming in my headphones, 'All By Myself' and I thought 'that's it, that's pure movie gold.'"
Unfortunately, many people associate this song, just as they do the whole of Vegas, with Celine Dion, In fact, it's an Eric Carmen song, the original being a truly plaintive cry of a man who fears the worst.
Still, Dunn has a secret Celine Dion penchant. At least he's open about it.
He begged some tape from an airport mechanic to stick his iPhone to a ruler. He sandwiched the newly-made contraption between luggage bags.
Then he filmed and he mimed.
He used every trick he'd seen on a thousand sets. He performed as few could have managed in the middle of the night.
His desperate need for a woman he expressed with the help of a restroom sign.
Who cannot feel the pain of his art and the art of his pain? We can only hope this isn't the last time that Dunn is trapped with no way out.
As long as his iPhone is fully charged, his art will go on.