#26: where insects sound like lasers
Welcome to issue #26 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU. As of this issue, we've reached a year of publishing this newsletter. During the beta period (the first nine issues), each edition was a sprawling morass of experimentation as I worked out a publishing methodology that was sustainable. Now that I've reached momentum and a rhythm that works, I will likely start to reintroduce a few of the more experimental features from that beta period, just to "mix it up" as it were and avoid stagnation.
Or, I will be lazy and not do that. It's going to be one or the other.
Highlights from Scottoworld
Advance reader copies of my next book, WILD MASSIVE, are starting to appear in the wild... pre-order links are up on Tordotcom. And when you preorder my book, a royalty accountant at Macmillan Publishers will get on the intercom and enthusiastically shout "CHA-CHING!" Don't deprive this individual of that joy.
Scottovision
Artwork produced by Midjourney (AI).
If I were a sentimental person, I'd say a year's worth of publishing a theoretically engaging newsletter deserved something special to mark the occasion. Instead, here's another ordinary run of the mill list of stuff to look at.
Aw, who am I kidding, let's celebrate! Here's a thematically appropriate clip featuring alternate audio of the Monkees singing happy birthday to Mike in the feature film Head. Sing along and pretend I'm Mike. No one will notice.
"Terence Mckenna - With AI Images For Every Sentence He Says" (2022) - In a sign of how far I've drifted from the heart of psychedelic culture, I only just learned about the Infinite Flow YouTube channel, which typically posts excerpts of interviews and lectures by psychedelic provocateur Terence McKenna. Normally these audio clips are accompanied by a static image from a visionary artist, but as the title of this one suggests, you get an entire stream of supposedly context-specific and frequently spectacular images produced by Midjourney. Although I didn't always see the connection between the imagery and McKenna's rap about DMT entities, when the two elements did line up, it was eerily effective.
"f*ckai? (sexy)" (2022) - Speaking of AI, director Jordan Clarke fed this prompt to OpenAI: "tell me a story about an A.I. that wanted to look sexy." He then created all the animation to accompany the resulting fable entirely written by the AI. It's surprisingly charming and almost self-deprecating, EXCEPT AN AI HAS NO SELF. Okay just wanted to clear that up.
"The Mind Has To Travel" (2021) - Renowned fashion designer Dries Van Noten - a member of the Antwerp Six, "Belgium's most influential avant-garde fashion collective" - narrates this gorgeous psychedelic film by award-winning illustrator and animator Alexis Jamet. Van Noten narrates "a kaleidoscopic journey through his thought processes," which Jamet depicts as an immersive and constantly evolving miasma of colors and shifting shapes. We are intended to learn "what drives [Van Noten], where inspiration springs from and how and where he goes to escape." If this is where he goes to escape, I want what he's smoking.
"Burning Man 2022 drone show by Studio Drift" - I don't go to Burning Man anymore because I'm a coward who lives in an office chair, but if I had gone this year, I might have seen 1,000 drones doing a fancy light show above the playa. Indeed, the clip here is captured by a separate drone that has a great view not only of the drone show, but of Black Rock City lit up at night. The music in the clip is terrible, and it's not the music the folks on the playa heard; that music, however, was also not great, so just put on some Boards of Canada in the background when you watch this. Anyway, I showed you that so that I had an excuse to show you "Biggest drone display ever! - Guinness World Records" in which 3,051 drones are put into the sky, earning a place in one specific history book.
"Mercury Birthpod" (2022) - What's that, you say you're looking for a weirdly demented fractal robotman dance video? Pouff has got you covered.
"The guy who invented everything bagels" (2022) - Actor/comedian Andrew Rousso has built a following being funny and creative on Tik Tok, where somehow I stumbled across this hilarious, yet moving depiction of the moment when everything bagels were introduced to the world. Utilizing a surprising approach to the Meisner acting technique, Rousso plays all two of the characters, somehow sharp and responsive to the needs of the "other" performer who is yet himself, while deeply personal and distinct realizations unfold in the moment for each one. Oh wait, sorry, that critique was just my theatre degree struggling to have any relevance in my life. He's pretty funny, though.
"Catisfaction" (2022) - In this surreal animated short film directed by André de Almeida, a Man and a Cat settle in for a nap. But in the subsequent dream, the Man is a Boy and the Cat rides a scooter. Mystery unfolds when a treasure chest is discovered, leading them on a perplexing quest to reach heaven itself. This is no ordinary cat video.
"New Channel 4 Brand Identity | Idents" (2015) - Filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, who directed two of my favorite music videos ("Karmacoma" by Massive Attack and "Rabbit In Your Headlights" by UNKLE) is also an in-demand commercial director; his edition of the Directors Label music video DVD series featured a greater number of commercials than music videos. When UK's Channel 4 needed a rebrand, they commissioned Glazer, and the resulting four idents are masterpieces of the inexplicable. No actual branding or rebranding seems to occur in any of them; it's instead a series of weird slices of life, albeit very strange life. Channel 4 apparently has a bit of a weird edge to it, so these might have been just the thing.
"Fallen Angle" (2022) - I realize we're heavy on trippy visuals this issue, but I couldn't resist one more, a recent video by electronic artist D.A.N. It's directed by visual artist Akiko Nakayama, who's developed a technique for creating real time visuals she calls "alive painting." She frequently performs live accompanied by musicians, standing onstage with a rig that enables her to mix paints, oils, water, ferrofluids, soap, glitter, and who knows what else on a surface that is projected on giant screens behind her. This video feels like an edited highlights reel, capturing a variety of the unpredictable outcomes her work generates.
"How to say 'Life is meaningless and we're all gonna die' in Polish" (2018) - In case you're traveling soon and need to know this.
Exit Music
It was issue #5 when I first introduced Exit Music as the closing segment of this newsletter. Ah, the heady days of issue #5 - it was a different era, a gentler, single-digit era. In those days, I was apt to take a turn for the confessional, secure in the knowledge that none of my readers would turn around and sell my innermost thoughts to the scoundrels at the nearest gossip site - not like today, when every word I write is heavily scrutinized for "evidence" that I remain addicted to dry cleaning fluid. But as a throwback, here is a small personal anecdote.
My work to date has often revolved around music or at minimum enjoyed the influence of the music I've absorbed over the years. Isobel Bailie, the protagonist of BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES, for example, reveals in an early draft that she's named after the Björk song "Isobel." (In that draft, "Isobel" was a self-chosen handle, but it became her given name in subsequent drafts.) Similarly, the main character of YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU is called MPC after the music blog they maintain, Much Preferred Customers, itself named after the music Tumblr I've maintained for years of the same name. But it may interest you to know that this name is derived from a track by a band called The Dissociatives, released on their 2004 self-titled combination debut and swan song record. It's a track I shall send you out with this issue, called "We're Much Preferred Customers." (And no, using a song title by this band for inspiration is evidence of nothing untoward on my part, as dry cleaning fluid is not a proper dissociative.) If there is meaning to the lyrics, I have yet to discern them, although the opening lines "Welcome to Planet Pod / where insects sound like lasers" are played partially backwards anyway, so that kicks things off to a great start on the "what does it all mean?" front.
Here is the YouTube playlist featuring all the recommendations from this issue. If you like this newsletter, please consider passing it along to a friend. You can rest secure in the knowledge that they won't just be receiving any ordinary issue. No indeed - they'll be receiving issue #26.
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.