#20: the waning days of civilization
Welcome to issue #20 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU, where I'm pleased to deploy the following image that the internet magically surfaced for me:
Yes, that's "Bones" McCoy pronouncing me physically exhausted. So cut me some slack for a change.
Highlights from Scottoworld
A recent post to my flagship Tumblr, Things That Cannot Save You.
I am heads down on proofreading a PDF of WILD MASSIVE before it heads off to the printer. This step is hopefully the last time I need to touch the book, although they call it a "first pass" proofread, so I could request another look if I needed it.
For BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES, I uh rewrote the ending during the "proofreading" step. Sub-optimal. Fortunately no such last minute heroics are necessary with WILD MASSIVE, because I managed to frontload my panicked rewriting to an earlier stage of the process this time. Now proofreading is a treat, where I try to experience the book with fresh eyes as much as possible and enjoy the experience. It's a little bittersweet at the same time, because I may not get to experience this process again. You shake the Magic 8 Ball and sometimes the answer is "cannot predict now."
Scottovision
Because I'm on deadline right now, I haven't been able to put as much focus into this issue of the newsletter. But here are some recent hits you might enjoy, lacking my usual lustrous commentary but still worth a tiny sliver of your media playback attention:
"Man or Tree" (2022) - "In the wilderness, a tree begins to question whether it may actually be a man tripping on hallucinogens."
"Nails" (2022) - Recent music video from Noga Erez, a modernized David/Goliath dance piece.
"Skin Tight" (2022) - Ravyn Lenae's recent album Hypnos was accompanied by stylized 3D visualizers for every track, and this is one of the more elaborate slices of slick surreality on offer.
"The Downfall" & "Mycelium" & "I Hate My Shelf" (2022) - Röyksopp commissioned a series of tiny impressionistic short films, typically around a minute long, to accompany their new album Profound Mysteries. These are three of my favorites.
"Via" (2018) - "Roads, Rivers, Cities. Arteries, Veins, Neurons."
"We Are The Future" (2020) - An Adult Swim SMALL film: as precise a takedown of influencer culture as you'll need, but with that extra twist of the knife that only Adult Swim seems capable of regularly delivering.
"Compact Objects" (2022) - The delightful adventures of a fuzzy little guy who dreams of traveling into the strange worlds depicted on the ol' TV set. Lovely and a little bittersweet, while remaining pretty weird the whole time.
"A.I. Beauty" (2022) - Using the machines to make uncanny art, part one. Everybody's doing it these days, but man this one is still pretty uhhh hmm if you get my drift.
"The Tubbies" (2022) - Using the machines to make uncanny art, part two. Not responsible for subsequent nightmares; keep away from children.
"Earth Travel Ad" (2022) - See how the folks at Convergence Station attempt to market vacations on Earth to their multidimensional customers!
"Max Headroom x Chris Johnson - Paranoimia" - In 1986, Art of Noise released their hit "Paranoimia" featuring Max Headroom. In 2015, young Chris Johnson released "Acting Paranoimia," his lip dub of the song. Now see these two legendary performances side by side, as no one intended.
Exit Music
Sending you out this week with a potent live version of the song "State of Independence." It was written and first recorded by Vangelis and Yes lead singer Jon Anderson in 1981, but the following year, Donna Summer released what became the definitive version of the song and a modest hit in most places - but a blazing number one hit in the Netherlands. Fast forward to the year 2005, and Donna Summer was the headliner for a grand concert in Belgium called Night of the Proms, where she performed this tune accompanied by a choir and orchestra, trading lead vocals with Jenny Berggren from Ace of Bass. (Ignore the incorrect title given by the uploader which suggests Art of Noise is performing; they aren't.)
For extra credit, walk back through time again and check out the original music video for the song, arriving finally at a brief and moving interview where Summer describes the making of the song. As for its meaning, it's one of those tracks where the lyrics conveniently allow an array of interpretations, but what struck me when I first heard this Proms version was the effortless joy of it, which elevates the 80s-era WOMAD-style arrangement - or I should say, the joy Donna Summer seems to get from singing it. That feeling is transmissible, evidently.
Don't mind me, just casually discovering stuff decades late and shouting about it.
Here is the YouTube playlist featuring almost all the recommendations from this issue; links to the missing items are provided in the description. If you like this newsletter, please consider sharing it with your friends. Accumulating more subscribers is key to my secret plans. Just kidding, I have no secret plans. Or is that simply what I want you to think? Even I don't know.
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto
Scotto Moore is the author of BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES and YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU.