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TL;DR – In this edition: That space walk is unreal, the Focal Point Mech Suit is probably #1 to look at. And watch Alan Tudyk in Resident Alien on SyFy. Lastly, click the Amalfi Coast 4K video to see kayak basketball.

SO… How’s your brain? I think people hedging on “getting back to normal” will be like misfits wandering a strange plain. I think, to be honest, one needs to mourn the loss of our prior period of normalcy, as it will never be the same. Memories and psychosis will hang still in the air, ineffable, casting a cold confusion of a shadow, wherever we step. It’s the pain of loss, we feel, the sadness of losing a friend before it can become a soothing nostalgia to wrap ourselves with, like we might remember the 80s, or 90s, or simpler times that keep getting shattered by terrorism or greed. 9/11 showed us a new world, as did the 2008 financial crisis and housing bubble. Then the shootings oh the shootings, never to be quelled. And to wake up to natio so steeped in racism, they were able to successfully veil it as “economic anxiety” for so long! My bloodied progressive pumping heart created this certain aphasia to the real America… I knew about the voter suppression for decades, but man that the GOP is just a platform-less proxy for white supremacy took me slightly off guard. Who knew the pandemic would be waking us up like Neo.

This week, 10 people were killed in an old supermarket I shopped in. The next morning, about 16 hours later my wife was diverted from an active shooter situation in Yountville, in Napa County. The notion that our lives in Boulder or Marin or Napa and Sonoma might even be tangentially related to this ancient American bloody gunlust shows us what happens when society falls apart… it happens everywhere, and it happens fast.  Not to say that certain characters were backing the loss of democracy or control, just as they backed the insurrectionists at the capitol.

I was more mentally prepared for a zombie film than this slow descent into madness and being gaslit into hateful chaos. I guess what the pandemic told us what that we thought 9/11 was bad… but it can always get worse. When we get past the pandemic, then the real problems stare us in the face.  It might get worse, before it gets better, and it might never get better. But that’s the work we have, together. And the human spirit couldn’t give up if it tried, so don’t worry. There’s no point. Do the work, step aside.

I’m not even hopelessly cynical, just somewhat surprised where we’re at, a Larry David “Huh”, if you will. We were definitely sold a rotten bill of goods here at the end of time, but boy the weather is nice.

So on to the newsletter, with preceding words reminding us why I’m doing this… because…

And Now, For Something Completely Different

 

SPACE

  • People are down there on the ground screaming at each other about nonsense, so it’s pretty hard to reconcile where we’ve been as a human race, where we are now, and where we’re going. Because it can feel like we’re at the height of our potential, constantly, while seeming in the gutters looking at those stars we’re reaching for. Rough times, beautiful times… this walk is magic.

  • You think you have a high pressure job?

 

 

The Lost World of Soviet Space Graphics

 

SCIENCE & TECH or (tech & monetization of addiction)

 

  • 9000-lb robotic mech suit. This guy built a damned Jaeger. Ripley would be impressed… this loader isn’t as hard to move around.

You guide it with your whole body. Now, sure… Ex-Burner wants a sports league, but if 18 months from now they’re going to have something 2/3rd the size with higher power output, the practical applications of this in commercial and military is hard to ignore, and they’re small cap trading at <$7 right now. Thoughts? Welcome to Furrion Exobiotics, and the anti-robot Prosthesism https://www.cnet.com/news/prosthesis-is-a-real-life-mech-suit-you-can-pilot-like-the-power-loader/

 

 

 

  • This is in honor of the coming infrastructure bill:

 

 

  • An unreal look at the Icelandic volcano that’s been erupting. It has been suggested this is the start of a decades long eruption:

 

  • This place in Wales called “The Loop” seems UNREAL… probably hours worth of 4K flybys like you’ve never seen. Unreal. Good look at the sophistication of these jets:

 

  • Remember the feet in sneakers that would wash up on shore in British Columbia (Which is neither British, nor Columbian)… They basically finally figured out the mystery! I’ve fished out of the Salish Sea for most of my life. It’s a very special place, but the tides and area itself are brutal and unforgiving. I’ve seen whirlpools that would swallow a 17′ Boston Whaler, so no doubt if you end up in the drink, stuff goes south fast. However, the case of the missing feet is really the case of the missing bodies, because the feet aren’t missing. They are missing their body, but the final answer is slightly more mundane and generally unresolved. Still, SCIENCE is on the case, and they’ve basically solved it!

“The unsettling discoveries along the Salish Sea prompted talk of serial killers, aliens, and psychics. The truth is even more unexpected”. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/how-science-solved-the-mystery-of-feet-washing-ashore-in-the-pacific-northwest-salish-sea

 

  • Using satellites to track how oil is getting to North Korea. Fascinating New York Times investigative piece using tech to unravel a mystery:

 

 

 

  • Until recently, I’d looked at watches as functionless and pretentious man jewelry.  I hated them. I am turning the corner now, in thinking they are technological disruptors, an arcane and archaic technology that interrupts your need to pull out your phone or touch it. What % of phone usage is just looking at the time? Now, to consider what tech is doing to us… how often do you check the time and then need to check it again immediately because you don’t know what time it is? So, I hate jewlery, I hate pretentiousness, but I am a bit closer than I’ve ever been… and man this deep dive on the typography and lack of thought into it is fascinating.

Inside The Design The Case For Better Watch Typography Watchmakers are master craftspeople. Why do so few invest in lettering? https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-case-for-better-watch-typography

This line:

“My objective was to create a typography that illustrated my vision of a masculine spirit according to Chanel, of an elegance defined around the notions of power and discretion.”

 

TELEVISION AND MOVIES UNLESS MOVIES IS JEALOUS THEN MOVIES FIRST BUT TV IS LIKE 8 HOUR MOVIES NOW…. SOoooo?

  • With all the talk of the Snyder cut of Justice League, I’d like to see the 46 or 24 reel 1924 film “Greed”, but then again, the 4 hour reconstruction will do. I forgot this existed and in embarking on some old film rewatches, I saw a rare silver nitrate cut of Stroheim on silver nitrate in a silent film class at CU Boulder in the 1990s. Always exciting wondering whether the film room behind you might explode. I kid. https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/1999/11/fables-of-the-reconstruction-the-4-hour-greed/

If you don’t have time for the 4 hour recreation “experiment” that TCM ran, here’s 1h53 w/ the original score:

Erich von Stroheim’s “Greed” (1924) with original live score by Asphalt Serenade from ASPHALT SERENADE on Vimeo.

4 hour version however is available on your favorite rent/purchase streamer: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Greed?gl=US&hl=en&id=KbETb471Jkc

 

I’d say I was surprised by The Birds being listed, but that’s likely a testament to how rapidly technical achievements seems rapidly dated, washing the bloom off the rose of a bad story. However, no Greed is sort of shocking, and I wonder if Japanese sensibility interrupted his ability to choose Citizen Kane by Welles? I still am fascinated by the critical flop of “It’s a Wonderful Life” to being reborn as a masterpiece after money conscious execs found it as a free holiday film to run, because the rights had reverted to public domain and anyone could play the film. Also, that one scene from Un Chien Andalou! No Nosferatu, as well. or Metropolis. Lastly, I had the gift of seeing a silver nitrate print of Broken Blossoms in the mid 90s, as well. I do admit, not everything was silver nitrate and I do remember this being more yellow, so I could be wrong. Regardless of needing to be in a mood of time and place to watch classic silent film, it’s well worth it. Very sad story.

 

  • NEW TV SHOW BRILLIANCE: Alan Tudyk in Resident Alien is glorious. 1 season, just ended SyFy/Peacock. So funny. Probably already mentioned. Truly a wonderful departure in 45-60 minute heavy dramas. Light hearted, and probably okay to watch with kids 10 and up. Great family show, but I will eat my shoe if Tudyk doesn’t win an Emmy.

 

  • I’ve been watching these up and coming filmmakers Benson and Moorhead for nearly 10 fucking years? jesus we’re old. ANYHooo…
    Watch Spring whenever, but watch Resolution first, then The Endless. Their newest film isn’t tied to the prior films, but *probably* in the same universe. The new entry is “Synchronic”, and holy hell they made a movie that absolutely has Christopher Nolan pacing and swearing in his Malibu mansion. Anthony Mackie is stellar, the other guy is apparently literally my brother in law which was weird to watch (figured out he is unrecognizable but was the lead in 50 Shades). I didn’t see Tenet, but this is absolutely the kind of thing Nolan desperately wants to nail, and these guys did it. I would go in without reading about it —> “Synchronic”

 

  • I’m embarking on something fun, or existentially sad. I am starting to watch a huge subset of films from my lifetime of cinema, and likely for the last time. Don’t get me wrong… there’s movies I will watch over forever until I expire, but there’s some that fill the space in my brain, and I just want another viewing to move on and clear up room in the noggin’, spring cleaning of the ole spongey brain thing. That being said…

HOLY COW Big Trouble in Little China, in an age of movies that age poorly, and sound a bit tone deaf in the modern era… John Carpenter made a very special little time capsule, and somehow I even forgot it was in San Francisco. The worst thing you could say is that this was a silly white savior film of a dude playing John Wayne goofily helps out some people in Chinatown… but it’s actually the Chinese sidekick accomplishing everything, and the “hero” is just a bumbling guy. This truly was John Carpenter’s love affair with Hong Kong film style and aesthetic, and he wanted to bring it to American audiences as a love note. He did a superb job, and it’s almost incomprehensible for the time that he didn’t just parrot all the asian stereotypes vs celebrating the positives. Truly an undervalued film. With this, Carpenter also has reclaimed his spot in my favorite directors of all time… I mean: Escape from L.A., Village of the Damned, In the Mouth of Madness, They Live, Prince of Darkness, Starman, Christine, The Thing, Escape from New York, The Fog, Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, Dark Star… unreal.

Kurt Russell Looks Back at ‘Big Trouble in Little China’: Studio Execs “Did Not Get It” https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/kurt-russell-looks-back-at-935806

  • A 1927 Paramount Studios Production Map for scouting locations in California that could represent the rest of the world:
1927 Paramount Studio Map Of California Filming Locations That Look Like Foreign Countries & Regions

CULTURE AND SOCIETY (& FOOD)

  • The Invention of a New Pasta Shape posted by Jason Kottke Mar 19, 2021 For the past three years, Dan Pashman of The Sporkful podcast has been on something of a mission: to invent a new pasta shape. All of Pashman’s hard work has paid off with the debut of cascatelli pasta, available for sale from Sfoglini. https://kottke.org/21/03/the-invention-of-a-new-pasta-shape (this is divine… I like my sauce, I’m not a big pasta fan as much as using it as a vehicle for sauce. Can’t wait for this!)

 

This is the longer article, and it’s truly a trap for America to believe we’re only dialectical with any/all of our attitudes. There’s a middle ground center of balance to *everything*, but finding it is the process of existing. The point is to have the conversation.

Pandemic drinking shows America’s all-or-nothing attitude toward alcohol: binge or be sober https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/Pandemic-alcohol-drinking-America-temperance-binge-16030912.php

 

 

 

  • I was about to put this under sports, but seriously, it’s more than that. It’s the Amalfi Coast in 4K *during the pandemic*… I am not saying “go film stuff during a world wide shut down”, but I am saying 4K video footage of typically overrun tourist places with less people is a JOY to watch.  I know some of you are into “slow TV” and Lauren and I love it. Last night, for a celebratory French meal, we toured the cafes and street markets of Paris for about an hour, then went to Italy. =) Anyways, these videos shot during the pandemic are lovely… places with throngs of people relatively idyllic. BUT SEA KAYAK SOCCER BASKETBALL IN THE MED AMONGST ANCIENT AND BEAUTIFUL THINGS.

  • You know, I think I need to show you one more of these 4K things:

 

  • You know I’m obsessed with old VHS commercials, so here’s a Panasonic one talking about their portable and in dash CD players:

 

  • A fantastic commercial about the world’s biggest asshole with a great ending:

 

MUSIC IS THIS WEEK’S CABOOSE

  • Very Buddhist of Jim, and I only proffer forth his conversations on the song “The End” because I’ve been stuck on this. One of our good friends, January (who passed a few years ago) was Jim’s leather maker and best friend. He mentioned the whole mythos around Jim, and the way would read WAY TOO DEEPLY into this song especially, thinking it was a high water mark for Jim’s mental illness, when he was literally just riffing on Sophocles from a school play he had done. Haha… “Don’t shoot the messenger”, but he didn’t want to do those things to his folks.

Sometimes the pain is too much to examine, or even tolerate … That doesn’t make it evil, though – or necessarily dangerous. But people fear death even more than pain. It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah – I guess it is a friend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_(The_Doors_song)

 

  • The most British thing ever, an hour long BBC documentary on the origin of the “skinhead”, which is the story of the West Indian Immigration movement, and dock workers shaving their heads because of vermin like ticks, black and white kids that formed a society of soul music and beer… but they grew up and only then did the National Front hijack it for the Nazi movement. “Skinheads” originally had nothing to do with racism. It’s too bad, because that culture was pretty awesome. Football, darts, Vespa scooters, mod lifestyle a bit… and bluebeat and two tone to boot!

 

  • Ok… my Alex Garland to Crosby Stills and Nash to Dark Side + Oz to Tarkovsky, well let me say my rememory archive blew up and here we are. I gave you Cat Stevens last week, this week I give you a few covers of his song Trouble by Eddie Vedder and (gulp) Chris Cornell. The former was new to playing guitar, he did great. The latter was trying so hard for his fans to appear “hard” in the face of loving Cat Stevens, and that’s part of the tragedy of his death.

Eddie Vedder… hi Ed who I accidentally called Brian!

 

Chris. Rough.

 

  • BUT WAIT A MINUTE WHAT IS HAPPENING CAT STEVENS / YUSEF IS MAKING NEW VIDEOS?

Sept 2020 I think…. This video has a melodic bridge I’m not so fond of for the portraits scene, but holy cow. They get the voices right. I always wondered specifically the father and son voices! Yusef is back and recording. He even did a NPR Tiny Desk: https://youtu.be/FoPoI1IwcTw

LA 28m w/ a recording error around 18m:

But London same year:

 

BUT THEN THE TINY DESK I MENTIONED BUT NOW EMBEDDED:

 

Insane people section!

By Uncle FishbitsCategories: Uncategorized