#31: rockin' back inside my heart
Welcome to issue #31 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU, the final issue of the year 2022. I'll be skipping the next scheduled pub date of Dec 30th, returning to our regular cadence with the mid-January issue, so that means this right here is a de facto holiday issue.
If you're looking for gift ideas, I've got a couple titles out in circulation that might do the trick!
BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES - now in paperback!
YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU - still in paperback!
And although this can't help you with holiday gift giving, you could always treat yourself to a pre-order of WILD MASSIVE. When it arrives in February, the festive merriment of the recent holiday season will be yours to enjoy all over again.
There, my obligatory appeal to voracious consumerism has been delivered. Now we are free to enjoy this issue's video recommendations at our leisure!
(Glen Baxter)
Scottovision
Speaking of video recommendations, behold these sundry bullet points:
"Happy Holidays" (2010) - Now that the writing & directing duo DANIELS is a bit more well known thanks to their film "Everything Everywhere All At Once," let's revisit this seasonally-appropriate, action-packed, maniacally chaotic short film from their back catalogue.
"A Knightrider Christmas" (1983) - This 45 rpm single credited to "KITT The Amazing Car of Tomorrow" tells the story of how KITT - a talking car from a popular early-80s TV show starring David Hasselhoff - saved Christmas for a bunch of kids by... um... well hmm, I literally just listened to this and I don't remember what KITT actually did or how Christmas got into so much jeopardy in the first place, because I was distracted by how goofy fake Hoff sounds exchanging dialogue with the actual voice of KITT, William Daniels. Anyway, it's also a rap song!
"HAPPY HOLIDAYS" (2017) - One of my favorite animators, Hideki Inaba, produced this one-minute psychedelic holiday film, an abstract visual feast culminating in an appearance by some kind of dark matter Santa. Put it on repeat instead of watching a fireplace on TV or whatever.
"TV Funhouse, Ep. 3 - Christmas Day" (2000) - A reco from last year's holiday newsletter: TV Funhouse began as a series of filmed sketches that ran on Saturday Night Live for several years, before it got picked up for a short-lived series on Comedy Central. In this 20-minute episode, the "Anipals" - the weird group of animal puppets that star in the show - get high by snorting powdered "Christmas cheer" that they've refined from the spinal fluid of an elf, and then charge into the streets of New York City to aggressively Christmas carol at real New Yorkers. This TV show will not be everyone's cup of tea.
"The Adult Swim Yule Log" (2022) - The masquerade of a simple televised yule log gives way rather quickly to a rapidly escalating horror movie lurking in the wings. It's like an aggressive, subversive cross between "Cabin in the Woods" and "Twin Peaks," with surreal twists and reveals that unfold almost constantly once it gets going. Brought to you by Casper Kelly, the creator of Adult Swim's classic "Too Many Cooks." If you don't have HBO Max, you can rent this film directly on YouTube.
"SPHERE³" (2022) - The Radugadesign studio and composer Alexander Zaripov created this dynamic multimedia installation piece for a recent festival, suspending a large reflective sphere inside a translucent cube and then using the whole structure as a projection surface for an intricate visuals display. I feel personally slighted that this installation isn't happening in my living room any time soon, since I'm quite certain I would be an ideal audience, but even the video documentation is impressive.
"Patty Are You Bringing Weed in from Jamaica?" (2020) - A charming little animated documentary about a young woman who decided to smuggle 900 pounds of hallucination-grade weed out of Jamaica back in 1968. The art style is nervous and jittery, matching how I felt while watching Patty's saga unfold. Matthew Salton is the director; you may have seen his other film, "Santa Is A Psychedelic Mushroom."
"Where Are All the Bob Ross Paintings? We Found Them." (2019) - Hands down, unironically, one of the most pleasing studies of an artist's oeuvre I've seen. Bob Ross produced over 30,000 paintings during his career on public television, and none of them are for sale. This documentary short wants to know why, and ends up looking back fondly on Ross through the eyes of the people responsible for caretaking his legacy.
"THE SIGHTS OF SPACE: A Voyage to Spectacular Alien Worlds" (2022) - Filmmaker/composer Melodysheep recently dropped his latest project, an ambitious half-hour 3D animated tour of distant regions of the universe. It's mesmerizing sci-fi speculation at its visual finest, landing squarely in the tantalizing catnip zone for me. The filmmaker knows he's taking elaborate liberties with the presentation here; it's not a raw dump of satellite telemetry or whatever, it's a vivid and deeply improbable journey that no single person would ever experience, but there you are, cruising along with a tour guide pointing out interesting bits over the intercom. This is an excellent addition to the canon of high quality visual experiences in rotation.
"Always Room for Christmas Pud" (2018) - The Australian absurdist comedy group Aunty Donna provides this wholesome holiday sketch. As they describe it, "This sketch is about how no matter what you eat at Christmas lunch or dinner, there's always room for Christmas pudding." Ahhhh, makes perfect sense!
Exit Music
In honor of the great composer Angelo Badalamenti, sending you out this week with a pair of tracks: the Theatre of Delays rework of "Laura Palmer's Theme," and Julee Cruise in the music video for "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart." True vibes.
Here's the YouTube playlist with this issue's recos. I will endeavor to rejoin you in the new year for more shenanigans like these.
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.