#6: "please adjust tracking for best picture quality"
Welcome to issue #6 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU. This issue, I'm attempting a streamlined variation on the template to see how that feels: lower word count, fewer video links, not as much but still a very healthy quotient of magic. I'll experiment to find the right balance, and your feedback is always welcome.
Highlights from Scottoworld
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Scottovision
Turns out we've got a higher proportion than usual of pretty psychedelic stuff this time around.
"Stillpoint" and "Inner Space Artifacts" (2016, 2014) - A pair of animated films by Ben Ridgway, who is an animator, sculptor, and painter of renown in the world of visionary art. These are two of his attempts to explore heavy psychedelic states through the medium of animation. "Stillpoint" in particular reminds me of DMT visuals.
"Trepanation" by millennium parade (2021) - Don't fret, there's no actual drilling into foreheads in this video. If you can imagine the wildly organic animation style of Hideki Inaba's "Slowly Rising" video (he's one of the ten animators on this video) crossed with Anthony Schepperd (who made the infamous video for Blockhead, "The Music Scene"), you'd be in the ballpark of this surreal dreamscape.
"Repeater" (2021) - This animated short by the VFX house Carbon was the title film for a visual design festival in Vienna recently. A misfit alien is banished from its home for non-conformity, gets high with shamans in the wilderness, sows the seeds of revolution.
"Tartarus" (2021) - In this two-minute animated short from the animation studio Clubcamping, two beautiful psychedelic deities cross paths under a starry sky. They don't seem to be friends.
"Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No" (2010) - An animated recounting of the time a Major League pitcher was called upon to pitch on a day he'd taken LSD. Animated by James Blagden.
"LE CAMION BÉTONNIÈRE BOULE DISCO" (2017) - Then there was the time Benedetto Bufalino pulled up with a disco ball-themed cement mixing truck and an impromptu dance party broke out.
"Ciel Rouge" by Basile3 ft. Simili Gum (2021) - A music video depicting the fine art of keeping it real while civilization literally burns to the ground all around you.
"Autoscopy" (2021) - A short film in which a sound artist escapes to the woods to pick up some field recordings, discovers an abandoned flotation tank, takes a pile of mushrooms, and loses track of reality. Directed by Claes Nordwall.
"Recollection Connection" (2021) - Tired of your old memories and want to swap for some new ones? Meow Wolf's public access show is here for you.
"Telephoneme" (2010) - MK12's classic film about the newest linguistic element, telephonemes.
I've made a YouTube playlist comprised of the videos featured in this issue, with the exception of "Repeater" and "Tartarus," which are only available on Vimeo (you should really see those two, by the way). For good measure, I made a YouTube playlist for the videos in last issue as well.
Exit Music
Sending you off with this excellent live version of "Somethinggreater" by the band Parcels, from a show in Paris earlier this year. It's a pleasingly retro sound from some top notch musicians, who strike gold more often than not.
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto