Posted on

“We can make Sandwiches”, or “Snapshots of a moment of human existence that isn’t about Lindsey Graham”. OH MAN I gotta say I am enjoying the Gaetz stuff. “HOW DARE I SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF MY ACTIONS!?”

Some mornings it’s hard to start the engine. Well, I’ve got your new wake up alarm on tap. Enjoy.

 

SPACE

  • Tell me when you begin to have anxiety:

veil inset

 

 

Gravitational lenses could allow a galaxy-wide internet

 

  • Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. Little chance that this isn’t a memory for most of us.

The F-104 Starfighter was supposed to be the Air Force’s fastest, highest-flying combat jet https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/12/13/the-f-104-starfighter-was-supposed-to-be-the-air-forces-fastest-highest-flying-combat-jet/

 

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ADDICTION

  • Speaking of iconic, this 1970 512-S Pininfarina Ferrari concept fits in with my retrofuturism lust:

Ferrari 512S Modulo Concept 1970

 

  • This is important, namely it is suggested we stop calling AI “AI” because it’s not intelligent:

“Error-riddled data sets are warping our sense of how good AI really is Our understanding of progress in machine learning has been colored by flawed testing data”. https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/01/1021619/ai-data-errors-warp-machine-learning-progress/

 

 

—> The implications of this on the notion of privacy is making my transparency-focused mind explode. It’s bonkers, namely because the speed of technology to disrupt human existence and destroy the individualism of an algorithmically predictable consumer outpaces our ability to legislate and protect ourselves from it. Law and order can’t keep up in comprehending it. I am pretty sure the Supreme Court *still* doesn’t use email. For a fact I know they didn’t as of 2013.

Fig. 1.

 

R/P-Nauta 151

Yeah, I like Yachts. There’s likely no greater vacation, so let’s plan a trip where we rent one as a group? No, not one of these: From Solar-Powered Catamarans to Modern Sailing Vessels: The 12 Most Innovative Yachts on the High Seas These yachts are shaping the future of luxury boating. https://robbreport.com/motors/marine/gallery/most-innovative-yachts-2867075/aquarius-launching-14/

Nobiskrug, SY A: 469-foot sailing yacht

 

  • Hard pass on April 1 jokes. However these tickled:

“Confirmed! We Live in a Simulation: We must never doubt Elon Musk again”

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-we-live-in-a-simulation/

———-

“Astronomers declare no further research required Astronomers around the globe reveal that we’ve learned everything we need to know about the universe”.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astronomy/astronomers-declare-no-further-research-required/

OK… no more tomfoolery.

COMEDY

  • Dan Harmon can’t tell a joke… go for the laughs, stay for the 5 minute joke told in about 30 seconds after Dan’s done:

I give you, “THE DUCK JOKE”

 

  • We lost Mitch Hedberg on March 30th, 2005. I celebrate both the birth and end dates of heroes of mine. Calling a stand up who died from an overdose a hero? YEAH LIFE IS COMPLEX. Just joking… he’s not a hero, he’s just a funny       dude.

He was taken too young. I really wish friends and family could have figured out the real red flags and helped him. Could you imagine having him now in 2021? He should be 53.

 

 

CONTENT OR DO WE CALL THIS TV AND MOVIES BECAUSE YOUTUBE IS SUPER SWEET

 

  • We’ve been slightly addicted to watching upscaled 1890s footage that has been remastered, algorithmically fixed to be run at 60fps, sometimes colorized, with added sound. It’s unreal, and this Russian (I think) gent does amazing work.

MARKET ST, SAN FRANCISCO, 4 DAYS PRIOR TO THE 1906 EARTHQUAKE, 60FPS, Upscaled

(dude said it took 20+ days to render)

 

LUMIERE REMASTER UPSCALED 60FPS

 

 

  • This guy does the deepest of deep dives into the world of cinema and typeset. This is at the top because I think it’s that amazing, but unless you’re a person who has watched Helvetica, well… we’ll see. But it is fun to see Ridley cribbing his own work around the same time, even if we know the universes are shared as canon in 1986 with Dallas’ Bio in Aliens. That being said, it’s remarkably interesting, to the point of even identifying a type set “inventory foreshadowing” trop that I had never really caught on to:

Alien: https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/12/01/alien/ (especially like his breakdown of the opening title fonts)

For example, he looks at the self-destruct keyboard Ripley is using to blow up the Nostromo. Agaric Fly is a psychedelic mushroom. In-joke w/ trip?

alien_keyboard_agaric_row

 

Blade Runner: https://typesetinthefuture.com/2016/06/19/bladerunner/ (it’s amazing that he even unearthed a metaphor about the chess game as it relates to the movie, a fact I’d never gleaned from scores of watches of it)

The amount of name brands and products dropped into the film are overwhelming.

bladerunner_0_10_00_cuisinart

It’s awesome to see, because you begin to understand how profoundly crafted a film is, from top to bottom, soup to nuts. Gives you a real respect for the artistry and craft.

 

 

  • Rick and Morty did better than most in the pandemic… I think they’re done w/ Season 5 and 6 and started writing 7. 5 comes out in June, and here’s a cute 30 second teaser of a PG Rick and Morty for all ages:

 

 

 

Earlier concept art from a few years back that gave us hope. Delivered by the screenwriter of Rogue One, The Book of Eli, Star Wars Rebels, The Walking Dead:

 

 

  • WHY IN LIVING HELL ARE THERE OVER 50 TALKING APES IN THE DC COMIC BOOK UNIVERSE??!?!?

https://screenrant.com/real-reason-talking-gorilla-grodd-dc-comics/

 

  • Christopher Nolan is an overrated director. I often have strong, dumb opinions, and I can’t always tell which those are. I liked Interstellar as a big budget experimental film. Well done. And my friend worked on it, who also created the weird creature in Pan’s Labyrinth and yes she’s basically a genius.

Anyways, Dan Harmon’s rant on Interstellar is perfect, just peeling apart how bad it is, especially that it begins with an unreliable narrator so the entire film you can’t trust the storytelling or plot. I’ve deliberately not seen Tenet, because it just sounds like vain gobbledygook. Anyways, stumbled across this great clip of “when you give up on a Nolan plot”.

 

 

MUSIC

  • Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”: I’m a bit obsessed over watching the chaos and confusion that is documenting the various Kind of Blue releases, and the massive headache in figuring out what is what. Stereo, Mono, and whether from the masters, etc. There’s even digital transfers, I kid you not. The 2013 Record Store Day Release is likely the best mono, and my Classic 200 gram re-release the best stereo. Maybe.

The title of the below Mobile Fidelity review is 100% “jokey” clickbait, but it doesn’t quell the conversation about the MoFi Release.  People are divided.  The Classic 200 gram re-release with the alt take of Flamenco Sketches as well as Side 1 in the *original* speed is stellar. I believe conversation about the Mono vs Stereo and 425+ pressings of this album is supporting an entire forum infrastructure: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/miles-davis-kind-of-blue-mono-speed-issues.232772/

Here’s many (not all) versions listed: https://www.discogs.com/Miles-Davis-Kind-Of-Blue/master/5460

Mo-Fi’s “Kind Of Blue”: Kind of Blah? (Updated 10/28/15) https://www.analogplanet.com/content/mo-fis-kob-kind-blah

But:

There *was* a recording error that was fascinating. In 1959, some of the tapes recorded at the wrong speed, and every Side A was at the wrong speed until about the mid 90s when it was discovered. It’s probably more famous than the Doors “Light my Fire” speed error (listen to the link to the speed corrected version of the song, and let me know what you think)?

But could you IMAGINE being in a room with Mark Wilder (who discovered the error) and getting to listen to the original tapes on high quality studio equipment? Oooh boy. https://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/206fifth/

 

 

  • This man was taken too early.

 

  • Think of this… I think this is Polish Georgian Folk Music, Gypsies… but look at the young girl doing her West LA Hip Hop rap pointing to the beat. It’s hilarious. That’s the combo of internet and culture. Amazing:

can’t understand a word but sounds good…

 

  • This gent passed away from Leukemia a few years ago, and I’m just finding Brown Bird right now. The song Bilgewater is the title track from a delightful new Alan Tudyk show called Resident Alien, a show that I am about to scream into people’s faces to watch. It’s on SyFy, greenlit for Season 2, season 1 ended w/ Episode 10 this week. Also, the season finale might have the greatest 4 second ending in tv history.

 

 

SOCIETY & CULTURE

  • As cathartic as the revolution of awareness in culture is for women, and as incredible as this article is on understanding the nuance of micro-actions… this is really being posted here for the men. Problem? Most men I know are self-aware, emotionally available, transparently vulnerable, and not tone-deaf morons. It’s always the men that need to read and understand stuff like this that should read it, but of course they’re too busy showing photos of sexual conquests to professional peers on the floor of the House of Representatives. You vibin’ on who I hate with seething rage?

I Spent My Life Consenting to Touch I Didn’t Want A year of isolation made me consider all the casual, unwanted touch women endure — and why it’s so hard to refuse it. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/magazine/consent.html

 

  • Is this the smartest person to have worked in politics?

 

  • This is incredible:

 

That series is pretty astonishing. Here’s the clip about an unknown but to be discovered youtube:

 

 

  • I Think You Should Leave by Tim Robinson is leaking into society now… in the form of absurdist political memes:

https://www.vulture.com/article/i-think-you-should-leave-memes-politics-twitter.html

 

 

 

 

 

INSANE PEOPLE

  • Speaking of:

 

PEOPLE THIS IS INSANE:

  • Still watching the Volcano in Iceland. Unreal. The cones may meet! Also, bottom right, humans for scale like ants. Also some punks are posing in front of the camera for families. LOL

Atlas Obscura always with the curiosity! https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/erupting-volcano-in-iceland

 

By Uncle FishbitsCategories: advertising art Astronomy Beautiful &/or Wonderful brands business Content Cosmology design Food / Beverage funny futurism health and nutrition Insane movies music Nature Newsletter philosophy Physics privacy science tech television