#7: "the true meaning of christmas"
Welcome to issue #7 of THIS NEWSLETTER CANNOT SAVE YOU. Hopefully by the end of this missive, we'll have learned something special about the meaning of Christmas. It could happen!
Highlights from Scottoworld
On January 11, BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES finally hits the stage, and to celebrate, we're having a virtual book launch event sponsored by the Elliott Bay Book Company that night at 7pm PST. The registration link for the event is right over here, and Elliott Bay created a Facebook event you can share if you're feeling like telling your friends. Joining me for the event will be K. Brian Neel to chat about stuff and things; he's a director and performer that I've worked with a lot over the years (he directed me in my play H.P. Lovecraft: Stand-Up Comedian! and was a featured actor in my web series The Coffee Table). Our goal is to have at least a few percentage points more fun with the format than you might expect.
Earlier this year, I was a guest on the Seattle-based Perfect Bound Podcast, normally a show about comics, but occasionally about comics-adjacent topics like sci-fi as well. The hosts, Cole Hornaday and Ben Laurance, are friends and collaborators from way back (Ben edited The Coffee Table, for instance), and they're both familiar with my output as a playwright, which added a dimension to the discussion that hasn't been available in other interviews.
Scottovision
Please enjoy this non-holiday-themed selection of video artifacts:
"Hand In Hand" (2021) - A diplomatic summit is on the verge of great success, when suddenly the situation takes a turn for the outright bonkers. Written and directed by Ennio Ruschetti, co-founder of the production house Das alte Lager.
"Office Zorb" (2021) - A very brief animation about the perils of training new employees, billed as episode 01 so I'm keeping fingers crossed for more micro-episodes in the future. The director/animator, Eoin Duffy, is the genius behind such classic animated films as The Missing Scarf (narrated by George Takei) and The Man Who Wished For Lungs Of Glitter.
"Gloober Nova" (2021) - The latest in time travel-based anti-aging technology, from the gang at Meow Wolf.
"WEBWURLD" (2017) - Visionary artist Jess Johnson and animator/director Simon Ward created a 5-screen video installation called WHOL WHY WURLD, and this video, WEBWURLD, was an online component. When you watch it: "The screen becomes a dark window to a dimensional world, whose activities may be taking place simultaneously to our own. Chaos and cosmos overlap whilst gravity warps and stretches in all directions."
"We Won't Forget" (2021) - A super effective short film about a woman who experiences a meltdown/freakout at a party she's hosting. The guests' responses heighten the situation in unpredictable ways. The film's apparently been a hit on the festival circuit and I'm not surprised; it hits uncomfortably close to home. Produced by Volpana, a production company based in Portugal and the US that seems to just be getting started, with only a few music videos under its belt prior to this.
"Penrose-Voronoi Tiling" by Jessica In and Max Cooper (2021) - If you're a math nerd, the description on YouTube of Max Cooper's latest visual treat, provided by coding artist Jessica In, will fill you in on how they made this video. But you needn't understand the math to appreciate the results, a psychedelic audiovisual remix of an older video from Max's catalogue.
"MA1NFRAME" by Mitchell Leonard (2021) - A sentient mainframe computer has a few ideas about rescuing humanity from our empty lives of zero moral absolutes, depicted by slick & retro animation, and accompanied by a crunchy good electronic soundtrack. Mitchell's on Bandcamp if you need to snag the tune.
"Racer Trash Daft Punk Tribute" by Ariel Gardner (2021) - Racer Trash is "a radical editing collective" that chops up and remixes movies into a variety of surreal styles for funsies, screening the results on Twitch once a month. The collective members also release solo jams, such as this excellent mashup of Daft Punk concert audio with dance scenes from an Elvis movie, held together by the warm sheen of vaporwave aesthetics.
Oh but did you worry that I'd forgotten about Christmas?? No, friends, I did not forget about Christmas.
Interlude
("Sweet Silent Christmas Night For You" by Yoko d'Holbachie)
("Peppermint Yeti" by Laura Colors)
(Art by Shintaro Kago)
(Comic by Ben Ward)
Holidayvision
If you're so inclined, please consider the following Christmas & New Year's Eve-themed video artifacts:
"Happy Holidays" (2010) - Brought to you by the directing duo known as DANIELS. You may have recently seen the trailer for their upcoming feature film Everything Everywhere All At Once. They built a following making music videos and clever, demented short films like this one.
"Happy Holidays" (2015) and "Christmas In Space!!" (2021) - Eoin Duffy is back with two different tiny animations giving us a rather hapless view of poor Santa as he tries to enjoy Christmas. I'm sure we can all relate!
"Merry Christmas" (2014) - Animator Rino Stefano Tagliafierro developed a technique for slightly animating classic paintings and photographs, which he uses here to eerie effect.
"Snowmen" (2017) - In 2007, David Lynch released an art book containing photographs of snowmen he'd taken in the early 1990s in Idaho. This film is a one minute tribute to that book, slightly animated by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro.
"A Holiday News Report from the Horrifying Future" (2012) - A video from Cracked exploring what will become of Christmas when the bees mutate and take over.
"New Year’s Honey Glazed Ham" (2021) - I wondered if my heroes at Meow Wolf had contributed anything to the holiday repertoire, as it were, and sure enough, a YouTube user managed to rescue this Omega Mart commercial from obscurity and posted it for our enjoyment.
"Think Better This Christmas" (2021) - In this animated short from Adult Swim, a group of cynical friends try to cheer up their lonely friend. They fail.
"TV Funhouse, Ep. 3 - Christmas Day" (2000) - 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 will not be everyone's cup of tea.
Exit Music
That's just about it for this year, except for one last little thing I almost forgot:
(Comic by Wolfpupy.)
I've made a YouTube playlist containing almost all the videos I've recommended in this newsletter, minus a couple that are only available on Vimeo; links to those two are provided in the playlist description for reference.
Until next time, I remain your friendly correspondent, thinking of you,
Scotto