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Why is Dreams by Fleetwood Mac back in the charts? And why is everyone skateboarding along to it?

Hi Joe. Mick Fleetwood appears to be cruising towards me at an alarming speed. Any advice?
Hi Naaman. First of all, don’t worry. He means you no harm. He is simply paying his respects to a video posted by TikTok user @420doggface208 that’s gone viral.

@420doggface208?
One morning @420doggface208, real name Nathan Apodaca, was on his way to work in Idaho Falls when his car suddenly broke down, something he says happens often.

Luckily he takes his longboard with him at all times for this exact reason. With 15 minutes until his shift began, he decided to “throw those big wheels at the asphalt” (I’m told this is definitely something skaters say and not something I made up just then). Anyway, along the way he noticed a particularly appealing exit off the highway and decided to film the following video.

What is happening here Joe, and why do I love it?
It begins ordinarily enough. A man in a grey hoodie skateboards by the side of a highway. By the time Stevie Nicks gets to the verse’s second half, @420doggface208 decides to step things up.

He knows the words and he’s vibing hard. He stares directly into the camera and lip-syncs along, his juice hand outstretched, the drawstrings of his hoodie flapping in the wind. The man is simply having a good time. And I think he’s trying to tell us that we can have one too.

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Not all of us can relate to having the autumnal air of an Idaho morning whip at our head tattoos as we roll off the freeway. But aren’t we all asking what it means to be truly free? To be happy? To be alive? @420doggface208 invites us to experience that with him, if only for a brief moment.

And so I’m guessing it turned into a bit of a TikTok challenge?
You’re dang right. Here are some of my favourites. You may recognise some of these from the many messages I have sent you over the past week.

There’s this one from Jackson “Big Foal” Bateman, enjoying what we can only assume is an ice-cold VB while his kelpie, Jasper, runs along beside him.

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@vbmulletsmate @bigfoal legend

A post shared by humansofbankstown (@humansofbankstown) on Sep 30, 2020 at 2:50am PDT

This one from @kjp, harnesses the power of everyone’s favourite spooky vegetable.

My personal fav is from @mattjcutshall, which may or may not even be connected to the original (the lack of cran and skateboarding is of concern). But it’s worth watching for the mesmerising hip-work alone.

And of course eventually we got this one from Mick Fleetwood, the drummer and namesake of Fleetwood Mac.

It’s hard to tell if he’s skateboarding. But the juice is right, and he’s wearing a frankly incredible gold chain. Also it appears to be raining? Anyway it’s very cool and we love to see it, Naaman.

So the zoomers now love Fleetwood Mac?
Yes! The video went absolutely bonkers. It began trending when @DrewFrogger posted the video to Twitter, and since then has spread across the world. So far it’s had over 21m views on TikTok alone.

All this meant that the song saw a huge boost in Spotify streams, shooting it back up the charts. It’s currently at number 28 on the Rolling Stone top 100 popular songs.

What’s with the cranberry juice?
According to this interview with TMZ, Apodaca remembered that “[Fellow skater] @_matt18, I’d seen him do a video before skating with cranberry juice, and I had my cranberry juice with me, because that’s my drink. And I was like, you know what, might as well do it.”

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All my life I thought that a young Irish rock band gave us the defining piece of art combining cranberries and dreams. How wrong I was Naaman. How wrong I was.

What has all this meant for my dude, Nathan?
Since he posted the video, he says he has received more than $10,000 (and that’s USD baby!) in donations, and he’s feeling blessed. He plans on surprising his mum with at least $5,000, getting a new car, and upgrading the RV he’s currently living in, saying: “All I need is a place of my own where I can cook and clean. Shower and shit.” I hear you, my man.

He’s also selling some very fashionable merchandise, or “swag”, online.

I will shortly be ordering a shirt for each employee at the Guardian. What’s your size? You strike me as a medium? I’ll put you down as a medium. If its too small I’ll get it framed and hang it on my bedroom wall.