#11: ok betting pool is green
Welcome to issue #11 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU, steadily climbing up the really big hill, starting to pick up speed, and realizing they haven't finished the track up ahead.
Highlights from Scottoworld
The New York Times reviewed BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES (!!!) in its SFF review column, calling it "an audacious, genre-bending whirlwind."
I was interviewed by a blog called - wait for it - author interviews. They also invited me to do dream casting of an imaginary film version.
I turned in a major set of revisions for the next book approximately an hour ago. I saw cover sketches earlier today. I can't tell you anything about it yet, but the wheels are turning. This is not a "writing process" newsletter because that arena is well in hand by other writers, so all I'll say about the process is:
Scottovision
In which I still manage to make recommendations of video artifacts for you to enjoy, despite the entirety of my brain being devoted to revisions for the past two weeks. Come along with me on this journey, and look at some stuff.
"Ghosts" by Rone x LA(Horde) (2022) - Rone is a French electronic musician, LA(Horde) is a trio of directors/choreographers, and together with the dancers of the Ballet National de Marseille, they created one of my favorite music videos of 2020, "Room With A View." Now the whole crew is back together, this time with the addition of Spike Jonze contributing the script for a short film/music video called "Ghosts." One of the commenters offered this description: "A wonderfully crafted picture of the struggle of beauty in a world full of hardship and violence."
"Moment of Truth" (2018) - As long as we're on the dance film side of things, I've been meaning to share this one for a while now. It's directed & choreographed by Andrew Winghart, features an original track by Jarami, and they describe it this way: "Individuality threatens an environment that demands conformity." Can relate.
"Hear This" by Jarami (2017) - As long as we're on the choreography by Andrew Winghart and music by Jarami side of things, here's a music video you might like.
"4807" by French 79 (2022) - In this delightfully odd little music video for the electronic act French 79, we follow "a group of nomadic blob creatures as they journey through the desert towards a mystical monolith for a life changing event." Directed by Daniel Prince.
"Crush" (2022) - From the French animation crew MegaComputeur, makers of arguably the best short film about anthropomorphized donuts, "Plaisir Sucré," comes arguably the best short film about anthropomorphized alpine cable cars.
"Spaghetter Getter" (2022) - "A short film about the most impotent human in history." Bleak comedy in the grand nihilistic tradition; it sneaks up on you. Directed by Jared Lapidus, from a script by David Ebert.
"The Exciting of Coffee" (2021) - You may be familiar with the fake ads and fake toys generated by Obvious Plant, but were you aware of their film division? Because uh, I just found out. Here's one of my favorites from their collection, a faux instructional film about the joys of - you guessed it - coffee.
"Les Indes Galantes" (2017) - Filmmaker Clément Cogitore combined music from a baroque opéra-ballet composed in 1735 with the choreography and performance of an LA hip-hop style dance crew to create this magnetic short film, bringing us back around to dance at the end of our list of recommendations. This review of the film was enlightening to me. And there's a "behind the scenes" video as well.
Exit Music
I'm in an exhausted, semi-delirious mood right now, so let me send you out with a delightful and clever video by Pomplamoose, for their track "Pharrell Mashup (Happy Get Lucky)" (2014). Pharrell was the sole credited songwriter on his hit "Happy," and was one of the co-writers of the Daft Punk track "Get Lucky."
Here is the YouTube playlist featuring all the recommendations from this issue. If you enjoy this newsletter, pass it on to a friend perhaps. Doesn't even have to be a particularly good friend, I'm not picky.
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto