Meet the Guy Behind the Double Rainbow Video

(July 25) -- In January, Paul Vasquez saw a double rainbow in his yard near Yosemite National Park, grabbed his video camera and recorded not just the pretty colors, but his own emotional reaction to it. Now the Double Rainbow video has passed viral status and ascended to that weirdest of modern weirds -- it's become a meme.

The video got rolling when it was tweeted by Jimmy Kimmel at the beginning of July, has since been parodied and glorified by celebrities, and turned its maker, Vasquez, a 47-year-old from the barrios of East L.A. who now calls himself Yosemite Bear, into a strange sort of celebrity.

"The video is a mirror for people," Vasquez told AOL News. "There's nobody in it. It started as a double rainbow, then a triple rainbow, then it filled in and it was a complete disc of color. And I'm recording it, unfiltered, a pure god experience, and I was open and awed. Someone is witnessing god and everyone is witnessing that. They get to see themselves through it. The comments I get are really about them, what it makes them feel about themselves. 'I loved it.' 'You're an idiot.' Every comment I get, it's about the people, not about me."

In the Weekend Questionnaire, Vasquez talks about the years of work it took him to be able to live in the "now," why Taylor Lautner reminds him of himself, and why there are so many songs about rainbows.

AOL News: Where are you right now?
Vasquez: I'm sitting in the same exact place where I first saw the rainbow. On my couch. In front of my computer. In Mariposa, California, right outside of Yosemite. Mariposa means butterfly.

What is your idea of a perfect weekend?
Probably maybe one day hanging out at the farm and doing some watering and going up to Yosemite and doing some swimming. What I'm going to do today, probably. Then coming back and having a campfire and having a nice meal. Just life here, in Yosemite and Mariposa and my home.

If I could grant you one superpower for this weekend, what would you choose?
I think I would like to fly. I'd like to jump off some glacier point and fly down to the valley.

If you could take a road trip with any three people, living or dead, who would you take, where would you go, and what car would you drive?
I would probably go with Jesus, Buddha, and probably be Lincoln. I would go all over this United States just meeting the American people. We'd probably take like some kind of van that held some motorcycles that we could pull behind it so we could go cruising.

What would you choose as your last meal?
I'd have to go with like steak and lobster, and some kind of good alcoholic beverage, like maybe Kahlua and Baileys and Frangelica. That would have to be like the drink. And maybe some good pasta and some good vegetables and some good bread.

What's the best way to get rid of hiccups?
Suck up the air out of your stomach and burp it out.

Name the one thing you must do before you die.
Be loved.

What's the best thing ever?
Women.

We're stealing this one from Kermit the Frog: Why are there so many songs about rainbows?
[Laughs.] Because rainbows are magic and beautiful, and they stir your soul.

If you had to enter a competitive eating competition, what would you want the food to be?
Sauerkraut. Then no one else would want to be in it.

What's the best thing about the Internet?
I love how it connects everybody and everybody has an equal voice and it's instant.

If you could have lunch with the president, what's the one idea you'd want to plant in his head?
I want him to declare a state of emergency and start getting us toward alternative energy and off of foreign oil.

What's your most embarrassing moment from your youth?
I got beat up by a gang.

Which accomplishment are you most proud of?
My children. Raising my children.

Would you be happy if your kids grew up to be just like you?
For sure. I'm happy, and I use my imagination, and I know how to love. And I don't work. It's like some people work for a living, but they don't enjoy it. We just do things we love and the universe provides.

Do you have a recurring dream?
No.

Do you have any regrets?
That I didn't take better care of my teeth.

What song captures your mood right now?
That one song by IZ. That rainbow song. That one made me cry the other day. [He's referring to a cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.]

Are all babies cute?
[Laughs.] I don't think so.

Do you believe in an afterlife, and if so, what would you like it to be?
I definitely believe in an afterlife. I don't think I have a control over what it's gonna be so me liking what it's going to be is pointless. I have some guesses but I don't really know, so all I can do is try to live as good of a life now and hope for the best.

What's one thing about you people would be surprised to learn?
That I'm in constant pain. I lost 175 pounds from when I was at my heaviest, 465. It damaged my body, my spine, my joints, my knees. And now I'm in pain all the time from it.

Are you able to live in the now?
Oh, yeah. That took a lot of doing. I am definitely able to live in the now but it didn't come easy. That took a lot of work. I definitely dwelt on my ego, I worried about the future, I worried about the past, I worried that the present wasn't good enough. And it overwhelmed me and consumed me and didn't allow me to be happy. I saw that was a problem and I improved on it with a massive amount of work. Shamanism. Indian sweats. Psychotherapy. Reading books. Meditation. Many years of this stuff, and then I had these spiritual confirmations ... which are documented on YouTube. It's amazing how I capture them and put them on YouTube and people respond to them. People don't realize, these are all mileposts in my progression through my spiritual growth. These videos, they're markers. And that's why people are so fascinated by them. So I'm able to live in the now because I worked hard at this stuff, did the steps and, fascinatingly enough, I recorded the markers as they came to me and put them on YouTube for everyone to watch.

How many true friends do you have?
Let's see, I got one, two, three, four ... dozens.

What movie have you seen the most times?
"Repo Man."

Which animal do you most identify with?
The bear. That's my totem.

If you could be buried with one memento from your life, what would you choose?
A picture of me and my kids.

What's always in your refrigerator?
Ketchup?

Who would you like to play you in the movie of your life?
I want to play myself! OK, maybe a young me? Let's see, who would be a young me? I need someone big. I can't think of anyone. Maybe that one guy from the vampire movies. Taylor Lautner. He'd make a good young me.

If you had to lose one of your five senses, what would you choose?
It would probably be smell, because I've much lost it already.

If you were teaching an English class, what books would be required reading?
There's this book called "Mrs. Kennedy" [by Barbara Leaming] that I think is pretty important. "The Mastery of Love" [by Don Miguel Ruiz] is pretty good. It's not good for an English class, but it's good for people to know.

If you could punch one famous person, who would it be?
It would definitely be an MMA person because they could take it. It would probably be Randy Couture because he's my idol. It would be nice to spar with him.

What movies have made you cry?
"Sophie's Choice" made me cry for sure. "Alice in Wonderland" made me cry; that red queen made me cry laughing.

Do you let dogs kiss you?
No. But I let Hannah's dog kiss me. Hannah is a girl who lived here last summer. She's hitchhiking across the country right now, on her way back. She started back in North Carolina. She's 20 years old. Crazy girl. She has an Australian shepherd with one blue and one brown eye. That's the only dog I let kiss me.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how attractive are you?
That's a trippy question, because it depends on what light you look at me in. I guess I'd say a seven ... in some light.

If you knew you only had six months to live, what would you do?
I'd probably do what I'm doing. I like my life.

If you had to enter a talent show, what would your talent be?
I have no talent. I don't have anything you could do in a talent show.

You're in the express lane at the grocery store. Do you secretly count the number of items people in front of you have?
I don't secretly count them. I count them out loud. And then I say, "You have too many."