#12: rousing theme music plays
Welcome to issue #12 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU, in which I send flares up from the isolation chamber of my office here in Seattle, hoping to attract like minds without accidentally summoning the authorities. Is it working? Can we ever know?
Highlights from Scottoworld
The image above is a journal spread about BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES, made by a bookstagrammer named Melissa (and shared here with her permission), otherwise known as BooksAndToox. You can see a bigger version here. She writes, "This journal spread is born from the fact that this book was completely bonkers. Already from the first sentence, I knew I wanted to remember this book forever." Actually, trying to read her handwriting via Instagram might be difficult, so you can download the image from me and zoom in if you like. I think this could be my first official example of fan art, but I'm not sure it really qualifies, because as she says, "I did not even like the book all that much, but like I said, I do want to remember it."
Scottovision
In which the ever-expanding queue is lovingly tended to in this short rest between major projects, and the carefully sifted gems are shared with you. Imagine how delighted you'll be when you casually mention at your next dinner party, "I don't mean to boast, but I watched some stuff on the internet."
"Hypercapitalism Gospel" (2022) - Comparing society's faith in capitalism to a form of religious belief, this is the pilot episode of a web series by a project called Public Service Announcement Channel, which doesn't seem to have fully launched yet. The humor seems obvious at first, but its deadpan devotion to its premise pays dividends, as it were. Nowness Asia is the presenter, and they've got an interview with the project's creator, Linyou Xie, which concludes on a weirdly upbeat note: "Even though we all live in this infinite capitalist hell, the feelings we have towards each other are what’s realest to me."
"Color Of Your Soul" by GRiZ x CloZee (2022) - Impressive psychedelic visuals to accompany a slamming electronic track from two interesting producers. Music video by Jade Ananda.
"Art of Paint" (2022) - Roman De Guili is among the top creators of fluid art videos. His latest video was created using "just" ink on paper shot at a high framerate (a much more technical description is available on the film's YouTube page), and yet the effect here feels innovative in patterning. He mentions he's trying "new styles of liquid application on paper," and the result is mesmerizing. Plus he's designed it for viewing on HDR devices at up to 8K resolution if that's your bag. And if you'd like to see more of his work, his "Satisfying 8K Visuals and Eyecandy" playlist will do the trick.
"A Vodka Movie" (2008) - The story goes that Absolut Vodka approached Tim and Eric (of "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" fame) about creating a series of ads for their website. Tim & Eric agreed, but stipulated that they have total creative control. The resulting three ads, co-starring Zach Galifianakis (also famous), have been combined into this short film for your viewing enjoyment. I confess I am no Tim and Eric aficionado, so I can't say how this compares to their other work. Redditors were split about this film, calling it inspired comedic lunacy or a boring waste of time; I thought it was disturbing and hilarious.
"AI generated DMT entities" (2022) - On the non-corporate side of the psychedelic renaissance, the team behind the Effect Index project (which attempts to classify subjective psychedelic phenomena) recently trained a neural network on a large, well-curated library of visionary art. The output, the team suggests, seems like eerily good depictions of the variety of entities that appear to DMT users. This is an important step in someday getting sentient AI high as fuck on digital hallucinogens, so this endeavor has my full moral support.
"guy who likes music" (2017) - It's Gabriel Gundacker, if you needed to know his name.
"Poseable" by RHYME SO (2021) - "Deep from underground Tokyo, RHYME and SO are confronted by Grandma who is opposed to their blogging pose." This is a stylish, visually dynamic music video for an epic J-pop track. The SO in the duo RHYME SO is Shinichi Osawa, who also produces music under the name Mondo Grosso.
"Seinfeld Expands" (2022) - Animator u m a m i provides this twenty-second jolt of severe absurdity. Highly enjoyable. Need not be a fan of the show or the comedian to appreciate this; in fact, it's probably a little more effective if you aren't.
"DØGVVÅLKER" (2022) - A recent entry in the Adult Swim "Smalls" series of short absurdist films. Their description of this one: "DØGVVÅLKER controls the døgs that he vvålks using only his numb mind, and his døgs bend reality to please their vvålker." Demented stuff. Created by Vernon Chatman & lilfuchs.
"The Number Thirteen" and "Ice Cream Island" by Louis Prince (2021 / 2022) - In the first of these two charming, unassuming animated videos, a fish, a rabbit, and a cat performing in a band together face an increasingly unlucky series of events; in the second, a sequel of sorts, the unluck continues for a hapless young scooter rider. The second video was recently relesaed to promote the upcoming new Louis Prince album called "Flounder." Both videos were directed and animated by Joel Plosz.
Exit Music
Sending you out with a recent single by ODESZA called "The Last Goodbye", built around the vocals of acclaimed blues and soul singer, Bettye LaVette. The original track was recorded in 1965 when Bettye was 19 years old.
Here is the YouTube playlist featuring all the recommendations from this issue. If you enjoy this newsletter, pass it on to a friend perhaps. I'm sure their inbox can handle it.
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto