#24: if you complain once more
Welcome to issue #24 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU. Bringing this one screaming in for a landing as the sun comes up, ready to face the morning with the satisfaction of knowing that yes, yes, I've done it, ME, I've finally done it - I've generated content.
Just kidding, I hate mornings.
Highlights from Scottoworld
Warning: do not click or tap the above image.
Goodreads is hosting a book giveaway for WILD MASSIVE, my next novel, in which 50 advance copies are up for grabs. The last day to enter is September 9. Because I am strange and make poor decisions, I posted a video to my Instagram profile describing the book. It's cursed, don't watch it.
BookPage included me in their roundup of "the best debuts of 2022 so far." The BookPage review is the one that provided this quality pullquote: "Battle of the Linguist Mages reads like Noam Chomsky and Judith Butler conceived a metaphorical child while high on LSD and blasting Skrillex in a basement."
Scottovision
Behold! These sundry visual delights are yours to consume at your leisure:
"God Is God" (1997 / 2010) - In 1997, Ben Watkins aka Juno Reactor licensed footage from the renowned 1969 Soviet Armenian art film The Colour of Pomegranates, directed by Sergei Parajanov, to create the music video for this classic electronic track. (Naturally I saw it for the first time thanks to AMP.) According to legend, copyright issues kept knocking it off the web despite licensing from the Armenian Ministry of Culture. The earliest version on YouTube today is circa 2008, but fast forward to 2010 when a mysterious user with the handle taonona66 created a YouTube account in order to post exactly one video, a frame by frame recreation of the "God Is God" video using a decent 35mm print of the film as the source, as compared to the battered 16mm print that Watkins had used. It's a heroic rescue of a captivating edit. Extra credit: In 2013, the Bialystok Film Festival in Poland commissioned a score for the entire film from Watkins; or you can enjoy the film with its original score intact.
"Army of Me (live)" (1995) - Björk has a new album due out Sept 30, and her fandom is abuzz at the Guardian's description: "The album’s two lodestones are bass clarinet and violent outbursts of gabber." But this would only be the latest in a series of radical experiments that have baffled casual fans and mainstream observers alike. For instance, back in 1995, she appeared on Top of the Pops in the UK to perform a hardcore version of "Army of Me" backed by no less than influential heavy rock band Skunk Anansie, a far cry from the electronic-infused arrangements that helped her break through as a solo artist. I will respectfully avoid making any vaguely derogatory comments about gabber now, because Björk.
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (2007) - A strange and infamous episode in pop culture history began in 1991 when culture-jamming multimedia collective Negativland released a sample-heavy cover of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and were subsequently threatened with lawsuits by U2's record label and Casey Kasem - ultimately prevailing and embarrassing U2, who'd used quite a bit of copyrighted content without permission during their Zoo TV tour. Years later, Negativland commissioned an album of doo-wop a cappella covers of tracks from their own catalogue. The 180 Gs took on the challenge, and for their version of this track, they sang every weirdass sample from the original and somehow made it all sound musical. It came up on shuffle today, so I'm morally obligated to share it with you. Extra credit: see also their delightful doo-wop cover of "Christianity Is Stupid."
"Enough" (2018) - For her first year film at the Royal College of Art, Anna Mantzaris created this animated short film that won a deluge of film festival awards for its skillful (and cuddly) depiction of misanthropic impulsiveness.
"Infinite Blue" (2022) - This animated music video is reminiscent of the final sequence in 2001, in which Dave Bowman gets yanked through a galactic tunnel to a place "beyond the infinite." Animator Hideki Inaba, responsible for the modern classic "Slowly Rising" music video by Beatsofreen, impresses all over again with his ambitious take on this premise. The music - a dense slab of cinematic trip hop - is provided by Billain, a video game composer and sound designer by day, who also co-directs the music video with Inaba. Instead of beyond the infinite as a destination, Billain and Inaba send their protagonist deep into an alien territory. I know, same diff. Extra credit: check out Inaba's short film "Flow," in which he experiments without narrative constraints.
"Wrapped Around Your Finger" (2022) - Not the Police song. Post Malone debuted the animated music video for this track at this year's Adult Swim Festival, which has been happening every year since 2018. The video's a charmingly weird and psychedelic love story between a bug-eyed alien and the skeletal embodiment of death, against a backdrop of lusty aliens getting it on. I'm not sure what's weirder, the premise of this video, or the fact that I've now knowingly heard (and liked) a Post Malone song. (It just never came up before.) Extra credit: some of you may also enjoy seeing Run The Jewels perform "Nobody Speak" at the Adult Swim Festival this year.
"7 AV-performance (trailer)" (2021) - Radugadesign, an agency that typically handles commercial projection mapping and video installations for bigcorps, staged an ambitious show called "7" as a sort of side project, in which "a composition of seven 12-meter LED columns, beam lights, lasers, and an immersive 360 surround sound system is produced to imagine a complex experience of synesthesia by making the visitors feel the colours." The trailer's only two minutes long, but you can watch the entire 40-minute show if you like. I watched it and I was like, "Whoa." Extra credit: the making of 7 AV-performance.
"ROW: Signals For Space" (2021) - TUNDRA, an AV-focused arts collective based in St. Petersburg, created this piece to commemorate Yuri Gagarin's historic first human spaceflight. It's an "audiovisual installation shot-in-one take using industrial robot, moved in sync with realtime generative content emphasizing parallax effect of five individually controlled spinning LED fans." Trippy stuff, and it took me a moment or two to realize I wasn't simply watching some well-rendered slice of CGI. I should've known better, given that I learned about them via the sizzle reel they put together, "Pointe Phenomenon," showcasing festival lighting installations that were designed with older technology. Extra credit: the making of ROW Signals For Space.
"Cry Sugar (Megamix)" (2022) - I know I mentioned this last issue, but I need to update you once again with the news that Warp Records artist Hudson Mohawke has a new album out, which you can experience via this "megamix" that condenses the entire record down to a five and a half minute track. But the music video for this five and a half minute track, I should point out, is absolutely batshit bonkers. You'll see snippets of the AI-powered dark sci-fi video "Stump" in the mix, and probably clips from videos they haven't released yet, but you don't need any context at all to appreciate the lunacy they've offered here under the skillful direction of kingcon2k11.
"Youth Grows Forever" (2022) - FACTmag presented this music video for a track by Italian musician, Nicola Tirabasso, using the name VISIO, from an acoustic ambient album called Privacy Angels that was "pieced together from recordings made in a desecrated 16th century church near the town of Montappone," if you must know. The video was directed by Rustan Söderling, who takes us on a slow journey at the edge of a fallen civilization, following the beacon of a tiny glowing fairy as it navigates desolate terrain strewn with wreckage that lost its meaning long ago. But scattered amidst the debris are esoteric signs of new magic evolving in this world. Haunting and beautifully executed.
Exit Music
Sending you out this time with an underrated gem from the 1981 album Stop And Smell The Roses by Ringo Starr, the only Ringo album I ever picked up when I was experiencing my own personal Beatlemania for the first time as a kid. The big hit from this album was "Wrack My Brain," written by George Harrison, to date Ringo's last appearance as a solo artist in the top 40. But the sleeper track on the album was "Stop And Take The Time To Smell The Roses," written by Ringo and Harry Nilsson. Even though it was ultimately no more than a B-side on a single that failed to chart, Ringo still made a music video for it, enlisting the locals in the little village where he lived at the time to appear as extras in a parade. Ringo's performances on the track and in the video are unerringly genuine, despite his generally excellent comedic timing throughout the proceedings. Cliché or not, he's clearly making a solid argument.
Here is the YouTube playlist featuring almost all the recommendations from this issue; a link to the missing item is provided in the description. If you like this newsletter, consider mentioning it on whatever social media platform you still cling to with the vague hope that this social media platform is somehow different and better than the other ones.
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.