Newsletter #0046 – Existence is just being part of it. “And the cookie was in no position to know that”, but still VOTE PLEASE.

by -

“The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood he was one of them.” – Turkish Proverb.

VOTE

The subject line of this newsletter is me, then My Dinner with Andre about the fortune cookie. Really, you should watch that film, even tho Andre’s ungrounded nonsense is tough to get through before Wallace’s speech flips the table.

I’ve just really begun to vibe that zen thing of just observing the path, contemplating me on the path, and looking at people around me on their own paths. I think wrestling our minds to the edges of existence is where the struggle is, and if we just peacefully exist in the center, it will be okay. It’s pretty still in the center. It’s sorta nice.

But we’ve all been through it, and whether we’ve PTSD from the pandemic, politics, people, climate change, or existential issues (or all of it), I’ve sort of figured something out about anxiety, sadness, and pain as it coincides with existence and the human condition.

Pain is not meaning.

That’s a long story. It’s a riff of sorts on a musician named Jordan Rakei and his song “Say Something”. The lyric is “Pain is the meaning”. No it’s not. I do feel like I am Wallace Shawn entering into his soliloquy in My Dinner with Andre. =)  Growing up I thought there was something poetic and noble within the notion of pain, whether it be a Blue Collar Worker’s arthritic hands, or having to overcome some senseless, brutal life tragedy. Then I realized that’s not necessarily poetic at all, and tragedy simply *is*. A broken body simply *is*. It’s part of existence, and it’s not the goal. So this is a considered comment for those who deal with chronic, mental, or any sort of suffering or pain.

You are not your pain. There are good days and bad days, but pain isn’t the defining notion of existence. It’s simply part of it.

 

We’re all just struggling to exist as whatever normal might mean

 

  • So enjoy a beautiful song that inspired that non-sequitr. Cheers all.

 

 

  • And, the above words are born from me sorting through some of my own pain, a year since losing my sweet friend and best dog, Norway.  I wrote something to celebrate her, and the pain was so great it took me a friggin’ year to complete.  Some of that was because it was too hard, some of that was because I hadn’t been ready to *stop* grieving.  But I wrote something that is easily extrapolated beyond a dog, to finding tools for any sort of grieving or loss you might experience in your life.  I hope you enjoy, and I hope you take something from it.

https://unclefishbits.com/on-grieving-and-loss-the-night-norway-passed-away-the-heaven-opened-its-skies-and-wept-and-tore-through-land-with-rage-but-lets-just-celebrate-her-maybe/

 

 

  • We colonized the entire earth, and then they realized they could colonize your attention.

 

 

@scottyandsimone

Could she be more perfect? #dogsoftiktoks #dogsfyp #paddingtonbear

? original sound – Sarah Stremming

 

 

 

  • Speaking of profundity, Shatner actually had some interviews in the pandemic that did amazing good for me. He’s a very real, very important guy from the perspective of having a life like his, to being able to say “nothing matters, don’t take anything to seriously”. It really helped give me space from the anxiety of judging thine own self. But this read is MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING, which is why it is up here. I’ll add some quotes.

William Shatner: My Trip to Space Filled Me With ‘Overwhelming Sadness’ (EXCLUSIVE) https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/william-shatner-space-boldly-go-excerpt-1235395113/

I continued my self-guided tour and turned my head to face the other direction, to stare into space. I love the mystery of the universe. I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years… but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold . . . all I saw was death.

I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.

Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong.

I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things—that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film “Contact,” when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, “They should’ve sent a poet.” I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.

It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.

 

 

  • This is striking, simply because the last few years chaos has sort of made us forget all this. These clips are damning, so the question is – WHAT HAPPENED? Is the GOP so lockstep on everything they all forgot what they said?

 

BUT DO NOT WORRY!!! THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE A SAD POST LIKE THIS LITTLE GUY

 

 

 

  • I’ve actually sent this before, but way down “there” ?. This is the priest from Fleabag, and he’s doing the delivery of one of the most famous soliquoys in history in a way that is more accessible than anything I’ve ever seen.  I was thinking of it in context of my pooch, so here I present it again.

 

 

  • Speaking of the many Top 10 quotes from the screenplay of Dinner with Andre, The cookie quote is from the film and I love it. A lot. Dinner with Andre is important, but I’m starting to think of art and philosophy throughout human history, how it evolved, and continues to do so in a way that art can predict the future, whether through sci-fi, or through philosophizing in such a way something 40 years old feels relatable, prescient, and nearly scary with it’s import.  I always wanted to unabashedly take Shawn’s side of Non-Dualism, and to the point I sort of try to understand Descartes, but reject his mechanistic thinking.

 

  • And on this election weekend:

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it.”

(Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville, May 16, 1767)”

Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat, literally: Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason

 

SPACE

 

 

  • NASA’s Webb Takes Star-Filled Portrait of Pillars of Creation https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-takes-star-filled-portrait-of-pillars-of-creation

 

  • Credit Samil Cabrera, from the Orionid Meteor Shower:

 

 

 

  • UPSHOT: This will help us understand cosmic expansion, because they’re basically on top of one another:

NASA’s Webb Uncovers Dense Cosmic Knot in The Early Universe https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-uncovers-dense-cosmic-knot-in-the-early-universe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • HUBBLE!!! —–> Globular cluster Terzan 4, located in the direction of the constellation Scorpius. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Launching satellites at the speed of sound from a centrifuge. Wild idea, here’s the testing:

 

 

 

 

  • Hubble still killing it. I thought it was going to be all James Webb, all the time!

New 3D view of Cat’s Eye Nebula suggests double star hides at its heart By Doris Elin Urrutia published about 13 hours ago Cat’s Eye Nebula is located in the constellation Draco. https://www.space.com/cats-eye-nebula-jets-3d-model

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY

  • Carl Sagan on the military budget vs spend on climate change. This is brutal, and it’s from 1990. The essential comparison is that up until 1990, the US spent 10 Trillion on the Cold War, which could buy every single thing in America, besides the land. And we spent that on the Cold War which had a very minute chance of happening. So why aren’t we spending money on climate change, which is definitely happening?:

https://www.tiktok.com/@wisdomthroughknowledge/video/7142942336207637766

 

 

  • This is brilliant:

Tentacle robot can gently grasp fragile objects

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • This is profound. There’s something called “harm reduction”. Namely, it gives people an opportunity to not be trapped in some binary struggle with potential addiction, ie “you’re either this or that”, meaning it limits people’s ability to discover recovery and healing. It’s like an alcholoic being told “You’re an alcoholic”, to the point of being triggered and giving up, vs just being told “you’re a human, work on yourself, don’t judge, and try to drink less”.

That being said, the notion of harm reduction is that the opposite of addiction is NOT sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection, and although I have some personal thoughts about TED talks not being “all that”, this truly is a WONDERFUL exploration of how people can heal and grow out of habits and patterns of self-harm. If you have community, it can heal and lift you up.

 

 

 

  • The Samsung SGR-A1, an autonomous gun that is essentially a stationary Ed-209 from Robocop. You have 10 seconds to comply.

Everything We Know About Samsung’s Machine Gun Robots Read More: https://www.slashgear.com/825074/everything-we-know-about-samsungs-machine-gun-robots/

 

 

Which leads to their list of when tech is REALLY BAD: Times Technology Went Straight Up Evil https://www.slashgear.com/818151/times-technology-went-straight-up-evil/

 

 

  • THE FUTURE IS AUGMENTED, ADAPTABLE, EXPANDABLE FORM FACTOR. These rollable Lenovo screens are something else… the phone and laptop with live orientation, etc. Amazing. I can’t imagine how “mobile first” design changes… so you need to snap to a laptop or phone screen… but now you need to gradually snap into real time scaling? I can’t comprehend how the matrix is built. Sheesh.

 

 

  • HAPPY HALLOWEEN and my goodness do Wall-E and other AI art generators have some unfinished issues to resolve. HOLY MOLY HAPPY HALLOWEEN AGAIN!

 

 

  • Deepfakes are getting better. This one is great because he doesn’t turn his head side to side at all, which is where the common immersion failure point is, for now:

 

 

 

  • Scientists discover mechanism that can cause collapse of great Atlantic circulation system https://phys.org/news/2022-10-scientists-mechanism-collapse-great-atlantic.html

 

 

  • OH NOOO…… drat. Greenpeace report: Recycling failed. Only 5% of household plastic makes it to recycling. What to do?

A Shocking Amount of US “Recycling” Goes Straight to the Landfill Recycling plastic is a “failed concept,” according to a scathing new report. https://futurism.com/plastic-recycling-landfill-greenpeace

STUDY: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GPUS_FinalReport_2022.pdf

 

 

  • Transhumanism is a thing, guys.
@bsmachinist

A brief demonstration of my Titanium Cyborg Eye as a flashlight! #technology #eyes #flashlight #led #prostheticeye #prosthetics #ocularprosthetics #oneeyegang #oneeye #cyborg #cyborgeye #cyberpunk #cyberpunkedgerunners

? Retro 80s – MaxKoMusic

 

 

 

  • YIKES. Anyone read Dalton Trumbo’s “Johnny Got His Gun”?

Some People Who Appear to Be in a Coma May Actually Be Conscious: Brain scans reveal that some people who can’t speak or move are aware of the world around them https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/some-people-who-appear-to-be-in-a-coma-may-actually-be-conscious/

Can the Brain of a Patient in a Coma React to Sounds? · Frontiers for Young Minds

 

 

 

  • AI powered grief tech is here, and it changes how people react to death and grieving. It reminds me of the story of a man talking to his dead girlfriend over AI… times are weird… but that prior link is a WILD and wonderfully interesting read. But now? We’re creating AI to replicate parents who have passed, to speak to them. People even learn new facts and hear new stories. What would you do?

Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready? Digital clones of the people we love could forever change how we grieve. https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/18/1061320/digital-clones-of-dead-people/

Deep Brain AI "Realize your parents with AI and keep them for life" < #AI < ???? - ??????

 

 

  • The World Needs More Gigantic Sci-Fi Sea Dams As solar and wind proliferate, the power lurking in the world’s oceans is yet to make waves. In fact, tides could become the next essential energy source. https://www.wired.com/story/tidal-power-sea-dams/
How Does Tidal Power Work?

 

 

 

  • This guy made a Lego Machine to demonstrate 20 engineering principals, and I didn’t think I’d watch the whole 8 minutes.

 

 

 

  • Essentially… if birds are chilling and calling to one another peacefully, we’ve evolved to know there’s nothing but peace vs having enemies or predators, etc.  We learned to listen to the birds as calming friends… until you are trying to sleep in somewhere tropical, of course.

Birdsongs alleviate anxiety and paranoia in healthy participants https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-20841-0

Bird ID Skills: How to Learn Bird Songs and Calls | All About Birds All About Birds

 

 

 

  • Not sure this is sci-tech or anything, but a GoPro inside of a driving tire is interesting to me. Long video I start at the sweet spot:

 

 

  • *NOT* the Moose swerve test… but the OMG A MOOSE test.

What Happens When You Actually Hit a Moose? Volvo Has a Moose-Strike Test for That. Yes, it involves a moose crash-test dummy. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a22604428/what-happens-when-you-actually-hit-a-moose-volvo-has-a-moose-strike-test-for-that/

 

 

  • SCAM ALERT: these people are dead. The scam is insane. It preys off fear, it lies about finances, and the idea you would pay $120K less to store your brain vs the full $200K body… I mean, this isn’t futurama. A brain disconnected from everything is meat, and won’t come back. The brain is basically meat with lightning. When the lightning dies, so does the meat. This is really a long-run depressing story.

‘Our patients aren’t dead’: Inside the cryogenic freezing facility with 199 humans on ice https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/13/our-patients-arent-dead-look-inside-the-us-cryogenic-freezing-lab-17556468/

Also: Why the sci-fi dream of cryonics never died The idea that humans could be frozen and later brought back has survived for decades. The hope is still alive and even growing today—never mind that it’s still not possible. https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/14/1060951/cryonics-sci-fi-freezing-bodies/

 

  • Worried About Nuclear War? Consider the Micromorts: Calculating the likelihood of dying in a nuclear conflict sounds like an impossible task, but it could give us a whole new way to think about the risk.

“Many people are feeling super depressed right now. That, I think, is the wrong reaction. You want to be proactive if there’s a crisis. You actually want to take useful steps and maybe even small ones, like getting to know your neighbors.”

If the worst happens, then it’s a good idea to have people close by you can rely on. https://www.wired.com/story/micromorts-nuclear-war/

 

 

Paper for nerds (joke, it’s over my head): Curvature-Driven Wrinkling of Thin Elastic Shells https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00205-020-01566-8

Wrinkled Paper Pictures | Download Free Images on Unsplash

 

 

  • This is like the cool glasses you could look behind you, because you were a kid pretending to be a super secret spy agent. Or writing in lemon for secret messages. The real “reveal” is all you need, so feel free to scan to the end… but you basically make your phone non-existent to other people, when you wear the polarized screen thing on glasses:

 

 

  • Why is this deeply disturbing and scary heavy seas footage on the sci/tech vs vehicles or “nature you crazy”? You’ll need to watch the 2nd clip below this one to figure out why! =) They are made to withstand this… and the front doesn’t fall off (see first joke under comedy, a classic sketch comedy bit from Australia)

 

Because modern ships were designed for that sort of abuse, and can flex. Watch this! It’s like the Gopro in the tire:

 

 

 

 

COMEDY

 

  • This is me, every time I know someone I don’t think is crazy, who then says something impossibly crazy:

 

 

 

 

  • This is in the spirit of the Community movie that was announced.

I am super sure Fallon is a nice man, but boy. Do you watch British talk shows? Remember Johnny? I’m sorry to be this old and shaking my fist at the sky, but I am not a fan. But this is about a young actor and rapper named Don Glover. He had a twitter handle @donglover.

He had to beg his dad for his dad’s @donaldglover twitter handle, and switched his stage / career name from Don Glover to Donald Glover, when he realized his whole life he had been “Dong Lover”.

 

 

 

  • BTW: Fallon all day erry day-
Thanks, I hate Jimmy Fallon : r/TIHI

 

 

 

  • This is one of the funniest skits in television history, with Tim Conway and Harvey Korman.

 

 

 

  • This was the best… hilarious, he’s not hurt, he laughs it off. But when the Tennis player gives that side eye and the kid is like “nothing to see here”??? THE BEST.

 

 

I don’t want people thinking that tankers aren’t safe.

Was this tanker safe?

I was thinking of the other tankers where the front doesn’t fall off

 

 

 

 

  • This is funny. And, it’s from someone that has changed my life A LOT. Geoff Barrow formed Portishead.

But he has also become a massively important film score musician, and some of his work is the most haunting and imaginitaive in years, and I’m talking Danny Elfman, or the oft copied Hans Zimmerman.

“I just wanted to make interesting music, proper songs with a proper life span and a decent place in people’s record collections.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Barrow

 

 

 

  • When you go for an interview at the BBC, but surprise, you’re hired and an expert and live on TV!

Transcript

Karen Bowerman: Well, Guy Kewney is editor of the technology website Newswireless. Hello, good morning to you.

Goma (visibly shocked): Good morning.

KB: Were you surprised by this verdict today?

Goma: I am very surprised to see… this verdict to come on me, because I was not expecting that. When I came, they told me something else and I am coming. “You got an interview,” that’s all. So a big surprise anyway.

KB: A big surprise, yeah, yes.

Goma: Exactly.

KB: With regards to the cost that’s involved, do you think now more people will be downloading online?

Goma: Actually, if you can go everywhere you’re gonna see lot of people downloading through Internet and the website, everything they want. But I think is much better for development and…eh…to improve people what they want, and to get on the easy way, and so faster the things they looking for.

KB: This does really seem to be the way the music industry’s progressing now, that people want to go onto the website and download music.

Goma: Exactly. You can go everywhere on the cyber cafe, and you can take…you can go easy. It is going to be an easy way for everyone to get something through the Internet.

KB: Guy Kewney, thanks very much indeed.

 

 

 

  • This was pre-Covid, pre-zoom, pre-any of this, and it was perfectly mocked by Key and Peele.

 

 

 

 

 

  • THIS IS FLAWLESS LOGIC. Tim and Eric, with Bob Odenkirk as his first mediator pre-lawyer role:

 

 

  • FREE GREAT STAND UP:

 

The other dude’s two specials:

 

MOVIES AND TV

  • This is an amazing breakdown. I remember in org comm and a few other group dynamics classes where we broke stuff down second to second for micro-emotions, and legit broke the face into 16+ quadrants, etc. It’s fascinating when you can do what this man has done… you breakdown the “je ne sais quo” into objective, measurable data points that quantify, objectively, that Hopkins is a genius of an actor and his craft.

 

 

  • Speaking of: Do you have any regrets? Anthony Hopkins says why you should move on…

No. Don’t have time to regret. Move on. Because we are acceptable for what we are, not what we thikn we should be. I’m accepted in myself by what I am, but not as I think I should be. Because that’s a lie. I’m a sinner, I’m an old sinner, I’ve done some bad things, I’ve done some good things. So, you just forgive yourself and move on.

 

 

  • Well, this 2 minute wrap up fan-edit of Game of Thrones makes a better ending than what we got, it’s AMAZING, it makes sense, and it’s just fantastic. I CANNOT believe someone fixed Game of Thrones in 2 minutes.

 

 

 

  • This is pretty amazing backwards singing!

 

 

  • Remember Lady Gaga had that repetitive supercut from press appearances with Cooper on “A Star is Born”? It’s wild to put it up to this, because yeah she’s repetitive, BUT SHE IS A DAMNED LIVING LEGEND AND JAMIE LEE CURTIS CAN DO NO WRONG… and she would laugh at this. She’s an amazing person, buttressed by the fact I knew and worked with people that knew her in LA, and her hubby filmed a movie in my hotel called The Mighty Wind, and whenever she showed up she was so nice.

 

 

  • Well, I totally ignored Doctor Sleep, which I recently realized was a direct sequel to The Shining.  The Director is a horror master, if not still up and coming, and he ties both the original book and Kubrick’s film together in this entirely enjoyable and somewhat bafflingly well done sequel! If you passed on this film… check it out. It’s fantastic: Doctor Sleep, on HBO MAX: https://g.co/kgs/k1gA4E

BTW, they go back to the hotel, and it’s super great:

 

 

 

  • I remember seeing Running Man without my parent’s permission, and I thought it was so grandiose and edgy and amazing. I remember reading in Fangoria how they did the head squib explosions, and I was already not grossed out by gore because I knew it was art and effects.  I just rewatched it and a) it’s so fucking efficient, b) the set design is so poor, c) I love Richard Dawson. I mean LOVE. d) this holds up SO WELL, and it was so prescient and predictive. e) I forgot it was a Stephen King novel.

But the satire and predictions for the future of a rise of fascism? Wow. Nailed it.  Mind you, this is prior to reality TV when the only reality TV was actually game shows. Or maybe Alan Funt’s Candid Camera.

 

 

 

  • Speaking about horror… I’ve been really curious about it. The horror community is easily the least toxic, most welcoming, kindest, most inclusive, supportive, and celebratory group of people, creators, and fans I’ve ever seen. I *DO* get it, but it’s so magical and special a thing that also causes some logical dissonance. But it’s a real tribe of kind and interesting people, and during the pandemic I leaned in HARD to horror (ask me how many times I watched Contagion, too), but horror gaming. I joke that horror reminds you that it can always be worse than your current reality. But it definitely parsed real world anxiety into a fictional universe that helped direct some of that tension and anxiety. It’s an amazing aspect of the human condition. I mean, we’re not evolved to be relaxed and happy. We’ve evolved to be neurotic, panicky, and filled with dread and anxiety of potential death around any corner. Everything we are is born from self-preservation drive, or sex drive. It’s just that simple. So how about some data? Scientists found out some interesting stuff about horror people, and especially in context of the pandemic, that their brains are slightly better equipped to cope.  Pretty cool stuff!

Why scary movies are helping some people cope with the pandemic… https://news.uchicago.edu/story/why-scary-movies-are-helping-some-people-cope-pandemic

Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920305882?via%3Dihub

Why Couples Who Watch Horror Movies Together End Up Happiest https://thoughtcatalog.com/emily-madriga/2017/09/heres-why-couples-who-watch-horror-movies-together-end-up-happiest

 

 

  • Chris Reeve on Marlon Brando:

 

 

 

  • SOCIETY: The guy who made Re-Animator made an even more insane film.  I CANNOT believe this film is available in HD on Youtube. But it’s a massively important and lost film from 1989. It’s a big commentary on suburbia culture and so much more, and it’s called “Society” with some of the most brutal and NSFW hardcore old school practical effects. If you loved 80s horror, real effects, and just bloody, gory chaos, this is for you. Obviously… it’s not for you otherwise.

 

 

 

The plot of this unmade film, which took place in San Francisco and at the Presidio, seems like it was a great concept… and the budget scared people more than Godzilla did.

 

 

  • For Jaws’ Anniversary, this is just BRILLIANT: watching it on the water:

 

 

  • Cool interview with Dan Harmon, showrunner and writer for Rick and Morty, and Community:

 

 

 

  • Well, this made me feel old.

Ted White, best known for taking on the role of Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (released 1984), has passed away at the age of 96. https://www.spieltimes.com/news/ted-white-aka-jason-voorhees-passed-away-cause-of-death/

 

 

  • I really, REALLY miss Michael Clarke Duncan. It is quite sad he’s not here. This is hilarious.

 

VIDEO GAMING NOSTALGIA

I slightly remember sexualized video game ads in the 1980s and 1990s, but holy cow.

 

 

  • SILENT HILL 2 TRAILER I can’t believe this is happening, honestly. They said it’s not PS5 exclusive, and will be on PC!

 

 

 

  • Entire known universe recreated in Minecraft by 18-year-old – “What am I doing with my life?” Slayton said in the YouTube video, which is now pulling close to a million views. “I’ve been sitting in this tiny, sweaty room for eight hours trying to build the curve on a black hole.” https://www.space.com/entire-known-universe-recreated-minecraft-game

 

 

 

These two unreleased games:

 

A fully finished but unreleased in North America “The Battlefields of Napoleon” (1988) allows you to play the Napoleonic wars from a bird’s eye view, VERY similar to the beloved Heroes of Might & Magic franchise that came out 7 years later.

It sold for US $28,877.00 —-> https://ebay.com/itm/275491251570

 

The second was “Scanner”, a single level demo for a Power Glove controlled game that seems like it was a car / vehicle grid concept (ebay listing: . Also, it just sold for $11,245. A non-playable tech demo. Wild.

  • VIDEO GAME ADS HAVE NO CHILL. Misogamy and sexualizing youth? HELL YEAH.

This was the source: Amazing vintage video game ads from the 1980s and 1990s https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/vintage-video-game-ads-1980s-1990s/

BUT… these are ones that stood out as “WTF were they thinking??”

I slightly remember sexualized video game ads in the 1980s and 1990s, but holy cow.

 

 

MUSIC

 

  • The new Vieux Farka Toure + Khruangbin album is fantastic. Have a video. Yes, it mystifies me we were seeing these guys in a barn with 30 people about 5 years ago and now they’re selling out 3 nights at Red Rocks and the Greek, and they are EVERYWHERE including in airport lounges and restaurants and malls and EVERYWHERE… and I am not sure how they are able to produce so much great music with what amounts to a mellow trio? But their past collabs of Vieux, and previously Leon Bridges, does point to a promising future of great music.

 

 

  • *GREAT* remix of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” –

 

 

  • Hooo boy Richard James’ “Windowlicker” is almost 25 years old. I’m getting the jump on it, because I need to be aware of some special re-release. But the album cover alone gave me the willies, and the video will do the same. But sonically, this was a very defining moment. What a track.

APHEX TWIN – ‘Windowlicker’ from GLASSWORKS VFX on Vimeo.

 

 

  • The Running Man was a synth snack, and I do believe a decade later a game called Heroes of Might and Magic 3 ripped off some of the melodies. But it’s a true 80s aesthetic I hadn’t really noticed like Axel F or the Fletch score, etc.

 

 

 

  • Speaking of, this little music mapper allows you to type in a band or artist, and it will show you parallel or similar artists. I did Portishead here, but have fun: https://www.music-map.com/portishead

 

 

  • This song is just perfect. The melody, the wordplay, the alliteration. What’s weird, along the lines of how I’ve found bands in a non-linear manner, is that I got back into classic rock (sort of for the first time in my life, really) because of the film “Annihilation” and Alex Garland’s absolutely perfect use of this song. So much perfection, enjoy:

 

 

 

It reminds me of Bronze, which is an AI that endlessly recreates an original song. Here’s Jai Paul’s Jasmine:

https://jaipaul.bronze.ai/

 

TO WIT: This is amazing, and yes… there are problems here. Make your own music off your own favorite artists:

https://holly.plus/

 

Quickest way to live understand this is here:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Holly Herndon? (@holly_herndon)

 

 

 

More on this version: https://holly.mirror.xyz/54ds2IiOnvthjGFkokFCoaI4EabytH9xjAYy1irHy94

And more here: THIS DEEPFAKE AI SINGING DOLLY PARTON’S “JOLENE” IS WORRYINGLY GOOD THAT’S… NOT BAD. https://futurism.com/the-byte/deepfake-ai-dolly-parton-jolene

 

PEOPLE, CULTURE, SOCIETY

 

  • Burn unit arriving shortly. Shaq just decimated Kanye on Twitter, with HIS OWN WORDS? OOooooof.

 

 

  • Gaetz schooled by an intellectual who happens to be a high ranking General, on why studying Critical Race Theory is important:

 

 

 

  • This house is about $250,000 dollars or so, and you could live here! “A 150 ft. Iceberg passing through Iceberg Alley near Twillingate, Newfoundland, Canada”

 

 

  • A church made a Jesus that happens to be Phil Collins:

 

 

 

  • Man, this guy. “When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a culture war”. Wow… “

 

 

  • This is nice.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Some Good News (@somegoodnews)

 

 

In No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money, author David Lough documents Churchill’s disastrous alcohol expenses, as well as the bottle count at Chartwell, his Kentish residence. Here’s the tally for March 24,1937: 180 bottles and 30 half bottles of Pol Roger champagne 20 bottles and 9 half bottles of other champagne 100+ bottles of claret 117 bottles and 389 half bottles of Barsac 13 bottles of brandy 5 bottles of champagne brandy 7 bottles of liqueur whisky

Another read: The day I tried to match Churchill drink for drink https://www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-drink/drinks/the-day-i-tried-to-match-churchill-drink-for-drink/

 

 

 

  • Find the most famous person associated with your hometown, or where you live… have fun!

Notable people Using data from Morgane Laouenan et al., the map is showing birthplaces of the most “notable people” around the world. Data has been processed to show only one person for each unique geographic location with the highest notability rank. https://tjukanovt.github.io/notable-people

 

 

  • Chef David Chang looks constipated, but wait for the presentation of what he’s talking about… Icelandic Char cooked at the table under hot beeswax, that slowly hardens as it cooks the flesh. It’s an amazing concept, and I agree it’s one of the most innovative dishes I’ve seen in a long time. It’s fun to be creative and playful, while not being needlessly pretentious.
@davidchang

I think about this dish a lot…simple yet innovative, experiential, delicious…synchronized timing front and back of house. All local ingredients…a chef is lucky to have one or two of these ideas in their life. I think restaurant Steirereck in Vienna, Austria executes this idea better than anyone else. #delicious

? original sound – Dave Chang

 

 

 

  • How is it cancel culture if everyone is still talking about getting cancelled on Fox, or Twitter, or the news, etc? I love Graham Norton, and he’s finally said out loud what I’ve waited for someone with a platform to say… it’s not cancel culture. It’s just accountability.

Graham Norton Rails on John Cleese for Having a Hard Time With Cancel Culture: ‘Suddenly, There’s Some Accountability’ (Video) https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/graham-norton-rails-john-cleese-135806170.html

 

 

  • Nancy Pelosi at John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Ball in January, 1961

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • This adorable young lady that may end up kidnapped, she’s too happy!!! =) (that’s a jokes all)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • After our world’s crises, then evil politics, then a pandemic… this is what a lot of us are feeling. It’s called “ambiguous loss”. We’re grieving things we’ve lost in a world with no waypoints for the future.

 

 

  • Meanwhile, over in China… shell games and bait and switches and economic insanity with endless real estate scams:

 

 

REALLY HAPPY TO SAY… Google Earth shows this as being rehabbed and renovated:

 

VEHICLES

 

 

  • FANTASTIC INTERVIEW WITH KEN BLOCK regarding his recent Vegas run, EVs, and driving.

Ken Block Says Electrikhana Was ‘The Gnarliest Thing I’ve Ever Done’ Ken Block opens up to The Drive about electric Gymkhana, filming in Vegas, and why performance EVs are a whole new beast to tame. https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-drive-interview-ken-block-hoonigan-electrikhana

 

 

  • When you gotta deliver all the steel bars:

No, This Mid-Engine Semi-Truck Fused With a Ford Station Wagon Isn’t Photoshop Not only is it real—it’s Autobahn-legal. https://www.thedrive.com/news/37033/no-this-mid-engine-semi-truck-fused-with-a-ford-station-wagon-isnt-photoshop

 

 

It looks like the 1986 Oshkosh MK48 LVS Dragon Wagon https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1988-oshkosh-mk48/

 

 

 

  • Like that F1 clip from last newsletter… I cannot believe this. I remember seeing new NFL players who grew up playing Madden, and would do stuff like run up and down the endzone prior to scoring (because they burnt passed the defense) and it was a video game trick to get time off the clock. Well, this is a SNES video game trick, and it’s insane. And it worked.

Ross Chastain’s video-game move shocked NASCAR colleagues, race team: ‘That was f—ing ridiculous dude’ https://www.foxnews.com/sports/ross-chastains-video-game-move-shocked-nascar-colleagues-race-team-f-ing-ridiculous-dude

About Uncle Fishbits

I'm.. just this guy, you know?