A friend of mine saw Faye Webster in concert recently and remarked that 5-6 people had fainted during the performance. With a little research, they found that this has become more common post-COVID.
His findings are confirmed by this excellent essay Falling from May of 2023; in which author Max Levin recounts numerous fainting experiences at concerts and the phenomena that may cause it. One such name for this happening is "Stendhal syndrome" - defined in Wikipedia as:
...a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion, and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty.
The name goes all the way back to 1817 when French writer Stendhal was overcome by seeing works of "painted frescoes and the tombs of Machiavelli, Galileo, and Michelagelo." Similarly, Lisztomania is the name for the intense crowd reactions at Franz Liszt concerts in the 1840s in which the audience would become overwhelmed with hysteria (and a helluva Phoenix song).
The essay goes on to speak on the shared experience of concerts and art viewing; how that can impact us both mentally and physically. I've not witnessed any bouts of fainting at concerts recently but I certainly can attest to the intense tuned in experience that comes from a particularly good show.
Yesterday I posted about the Friend reveal, a new AI necklace that listens to your surroundings, lets you speak to it and responds with texts. The trailer felt dystopian but I tried to remind myself that the older I get there may be new things that take some adjustment. While I personally do love the Friend, I can see that it's a direction we're headed.
What I really want to make note of is that all of these AI powered pieces of hardware have all had some drama attached to them and it's a really satisfying Internet dish. Friend is no different.
With the Rabbit R1 (which I felt intrigued by), folks quickly figured out that it was just a device running Android and the "Large Action Model (LAM)" was not quite as fancy as the founders would lead you to believe. The Humane AI Pin (which I felt intrigued by) got some terriblereviews and the parent company is exploring a sale.
With Friend, founder Avi Schiffmann raised $2.5 million in a fundraising rounder - a rather small bit of seed investment relatively speaking. Apparently, they spent $1.8million on the domain. Many are clarifying that it's on a payment plan so they didn't just squander 75% of their available funds but still. It's a helluva lot of money for a device that costs $100 and, frankly, isn't stirring much genuine interest. It feels like vaporware and I'll be shocked if it's around in a year. Bonus: this Wired interview is quite cringe-y - the bravado of a 20-year old trying to sell some futuristic tech rarely goes down well.
We finally did it! We have blurred the line so heavily between "actual technology advertisement" and "satirical commentary on a dystopian future" that it's impossible to tell the difference! Watch this product reveal commercial for the new Friend device and tell me you are positive it's a real thing. The device itself is always-on, listening for your surroundings and allows you to speak directly to it. The responses will be texted to you from your virtual friend.
The video was created by Sandwich, so it's incredibly well made and quite believable. I've pored over the website and the sparse socials and I'm still not convinced it's not a teaser for a new season of Black Mirror.
Assuming this isn't revealed to be a promo campaign, it does seem like an inevitable future. The Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin covered the exact same ground. Personally, I don't think we're ready for specific hardware that does this and provides any sort of actual value. Yet. Could I see a version of this in ten years that works like a Babel Fish? Yea, I totally can. I also can't completely hate on the idea of having a digital friend or personal assistant or whatever you choose to call it. Here in 2024 it feels out of place to have such a close digital companion but I can't imagine that will be true forever.
I regularly remind myself that the future is slippery. Technology changes both extremely quickly and very slowly. Social norms can shift in the blink of an eye (remember when wearing Bluetooth headphones in public was mocked and now it's not even something you notice?). I don't love this particular product for myself but I am fascinated by the development of these kinds of products. Looking forward to seeing how they continue to market this (and won't be too surprised when I find out Charlie Brooker is involved).
"The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" you may already be familiar with the concept. Basically, it's music of any genre, typically found online, that has no connecting information pertaining to its origin. In other words, uncredited music. Maybe it's an unlabeled mp3, or a youtube video with no information or an archive.org zip file devoid of metadata. The Lostwave community will take it upon themselves to try and figure out who created a specific song that catches their collective ear.
One such Lostwave song that made the rounds was called "Downfall" or, more specifically, "Downfall of a Well Known Actress." It turns out that's an unreleased song from the late 90s Nashville band Fair Verona. This is of particular interest to myself because one of the songwriters of Fair Verona is Beth Cameron, who later went on to form forget cassettes and Black Bra - two bands that I have worked directly with and feel very proud to support.
Very long story short - the "Downfall" song was found by a Lostwave community, researched heavily and discovered to be Fair Verona! Shawna Potter, another primary member of the band, has a rather compelling podcast called But Her Lyrics... and managed to bring everyone together to discuss the song, the band and the discovery process. I'm biased but it's definitely worth a watch.
the 2024 nominees are all fantastic. if you have ever thought the web was not creative anymore, carve out some time to spend with these. via @waxpancake
Apparently playing at the Paris airport is a thing. Recently, Air played, performing "Playground Love" for the first time in 20 years - complete with Gordon Tracks!
Supposedly the entire concert was streamed live on Twitch in partnership with Amazon Music but I've seen no clips surface. Fingers and toes crossed for more to come of this but I'm happy with the current treat.
Great to see that Menomena has been fleshing out their discography with new expanded editions. Their 2003 debut, I Am the Fun Blame Monster (my favorite), has a nine track extra edition, there's a 22-track expanded edition of Friend of Foe (2007) and, now, a 21-track track deluxe edition of Mines (2010). The band is also playing a pair of reunion shows in August. If you can attend, please attend.
A wonderful interview from 2022 with Tom Persky, the self-proclaimed “last man standing in the floppy disk business.” He owns and operates floppydisk.com, a shockingly active business that still deals with a fairly high volume of disks (relatively speaking).
Persky speaks to how he got into the business, how it's still going in 2024 and, most importantly, how the floppy will never really ever die. Fingers crossed.
Sometimes you just stumble on a video of a cat yawning that's been visually processed by guitar pedals. I can't claim to understand it one bit but I certainly enjoy the results. Will seek out more in this realm of "SSTV" - Slow Scan TeleVision.
Disregard the thumbnail that belies the insightful nature of this conversation* - take some time to listen to Benn Jordan talking Spotify on the Top Music Attorney channel. It's just 21 minutes and brimming with insights and predictions about how fragile the music industry is.
There's a particularly nice bit at 4:30 talking about Spotify's house of cards with funding. Is it accurate? I dunno! But it's a good listen!
* interviewer Miss Krystle is insightful and challenging to Jordan, it's unfortunate the thumbnail is reducing them to a sex symbol.
The TinyPod is a rather clever enclosure for an Apple Watch that makes it look and behave a bit more like an old school iPod. While I find the physical portion of it to be quite intriguing (a scrollwheel that turns the watch crown!), it's even more interesting when you consider the device a "dumb phone." Because of the limited functionality of the Apple Watch, you can't do nearly as much with this little device and, thus, it won't take as much of your attention. Phone calls, music, texting, mail and a few more essentials but that's it. Sort of a walk back in time to pre-App Store.
While I'm sure we all want to embrace "self-control" as the answer to spending less time on our devices, maybe a forced limitation could be a viable alternative.
Click through the site - it's well made and insightful on what the team has made.
a solid take on the Crowdstrike failure and how tech culture is the largest culprit to blame. Also a satisfying evisceration of Growth At All Costs and a warning sign of the future.
I had not spent much time with LOCAL 58, a series of broadcasts that feels related to the above but more alternate reality mixed with "lost transmissions." Also, far less therapeutic and more Melancholia unsettling. Still, worth a watch!
I've been subscribed to this @selfemeris YouTube channel for awhile now as it tends to post some deep cuts in relation to the band Self (i.e. early recordings or old promo vids, etc).
Recently they posted an entire tribute album, entitled Self-Portraits. It's fifteen covers covering a wide range of the Self catalog; a nice variety. I'm not really sure what I think of the album yet as I haven't even listened to the entire thing top to bottom but I do love the idea of a tribute album for a band that has always been overlooked.
Despite not having a strong opinion on it yet, I will say the chiptune Stewardess are a nice treat.
