Given that today is Cyber Monday, it's only appropriate to take a moment to reflect on a prior time when "Cyber" was used a legitimate descriptor for Internet things. VICE has a great piece on Remembering Cyberia, The World's First Ever Cyber Cafe. I was unfamiliar with this London location that opened in 1994 and was sold off in 2001 but that's a fertile seven years to be an Internet cafe.
It's interesting to read the anecdotes about celebrities like David Bowie and Kylie Minogue but I'm equally as entertained by video pieces that show the space and the patrons. The 90's really were something else in the fashion realm.
I was too young to be visiting Internet cafes in 1994 and there really wasn't anything remotely resembling this sort of thing in rural Tennessee. Suffice to say, I appreciate they exist, particularly these early pioneers.
Eden, the short film by Ben Ouaniche (aka Macro Room) is a phenomenal expression of practical FX and additive SFX. After the first two minutes you get some behind the scenes insights on how it was made and you will marvel at what is real and what is not.
I could not find a way to actually watch it. The official site is just physical media, Amazon Video doesn't have it. YouTube doesn't have it. Even Fandor giving me an error! Really reminds me why VHX was such a good idea.
Anyway! If you know where to watch this - drop me a line! I'd love to see it.
I've been listening to Blinker the Star since 1999's August Everywhere - a beautiful record that I stand behind twenty-five years later. I've dug into Jordan Z's back catalog and kept up with all of his releases over the last two decades. There have been some ups and downs (as with any band), but this latest release, Occult Classic, is really hitting the spot. Maybe it's me, maybe it's them, maybe it's a combo. Regardless - give it a whirl.
Much to my own surprise, I've become a real fan of the Egg punk genre. It's lo-fi, it's punk-y and it's definitely fun. I also love that it emerged from a prior genre called Devo-core. Anyway, the latest example of enjoyment is this split from two Australian bands - Midgee & Electric Prawns 2. Very into the whole thing.
There's only one song available from Bursting but it is damn good. This tiny paragraph description was more than enough to pique my interest:
BURSTING is a Chicago band reminiscent of late 90’s post-hardcore (ie Jawbox, No Knife, Drive like Jehu, Shiner) feat. Members of Thou, Yautja, Stress Positions, Coliseum and Ands. Their debut tape “Bursting EP” is out Dec. 6th on No Sabes.
You mention No Knife and I'm interested. The first song definitely delivers big time.
I rarely share videos that are in excess of 5 minutes much less in excess of 20 minutes but this historical tour of France's Abandoned Fairytale Theme Park is worth a watch. Having seen it, I can confirm that the "Creepy" adjective in the title is just click bait - it's not creepy, it's just the 1980s! That said, the theme park was highly themed and very impressively so. I love all the animatronics and generally vibe of the place. It's nuts to see these enormous installations for a park that only lasted four years!
Watching through it, I can't help but be reminded of Opryland USA, a theme park in Nashville that operated for twenty-five years and was highly themed as well ("American Music"). Opryland lasted a lot longer than Mirapolis but there are still plenty of parallels.
Long story short, carve out some time to watch that vid. It's an excellent gateway to plenty more weirdness and incredible photos.
The 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stop motion animation from Rankin/Bass is an absolute classic. Treat yourself this season and give it a watch. But also dive into the production of the film. There's plenty of YouTube listicles about it but there's no better authority on the matter than Rick Goldschmidt, a legitimate Rankin/Bass Historian.
This Remind Magazine piece on The Mystery of "Screen-Used" Rudolph Puppets is a strangely compelling deep dive into the history of the puppets that were used for the original animation. The animation was done in Japan but some of the puppets made their way to the US for various promotional photography needs.. but were those puppets ever used on screen? Or were they spares? All will be revealed!
I'm always a big fan of deep niche knowledge and this is a great example of that.
One of my local indie radio stations - WNXP - has been running a series of profiles on creative folks that don't always get the spotlight. The latest episode is a great piece on Piper Payne of Physical Music Products; a vinyl manufacturing plant right outside of Nashville.
I've pressed several records with PMP and plan to press more in the future. Piper's story is fascinating and the larger vinyl industry story is also quite intriguing - particularly given how much it is changing. Even just four years ago, the story was very different.
It's not an easy industry to thrive in but it's heartening to see PMP doing as well as it is. I hope they survive for the long haul!
Way back in January, Tower Defense told me they'd written a Christmas song and suggested it might be a cool idea to try to put together a yk Records sampler from other bands on the label. I put the word out and today, almost a year later, I am happy to announce the yk Records Holiday Sampler 2024.
It's twenty tracks of original and classic holiday songs that will be available on December 6th. We're announcing it today to try and build some awareness because the undertaking is actually a fundraising effort for CASA Nashville, a non-profit that helps foster kids have safe environments to live in. Paying for music in 2024 feels a bit antiquated but if you know that money is going to a great cause, maybe you'll be more inclined to participate!
Right now, none of the songs are available to stream or hear. However, if you support the compilation before December 6th, I will ensure you get access to two tracks early. So, go support the release!
The musicians did all the hard work creating and recording the songs but I tasked myself with creating promo images for each artist on the sampler in a "Rankin/Bass" kind of way. I'm obviously biased but I think they turned out great:
Roger Moutenot
Letter to Santa
Tower Defense
What Do You Want For Christmas?
Matt & The Watt Gives
No Child (Wants Their Picture Made With Santa)
The Robe
Gloria In Excelsis Deo (Calceamentum Vultus)
Coupler
Christmas Time Is Here
New Man
Christmas is a Mirror of the Mind
Trash Man
Wire Christmas Tree
Birdcloud
Cool Christmas
Telefone
Toys
Little Bandit
(Have Yourself) A Merry Little Christmas
Talking with Hands
Christmas Time
Fetching Pails
Where the Santas Meet
Stone Jack Jones
Away in a Manger
Annie Williams
Ave Maria
The Myrrhmen
Ding Dong Merrily On High
Shaboi
The Day After Christmas
Mac Burrus & Tiffany Topol
With You (This Christmas)
Been enjoying a deep dive into the work of concept artist Max Siedentopf. The website is a vast repository of ridiculous art installations, compelling campaigns and other oddities. It's a real blast from the Internet past where you can just spend a lot of time on one site looking at creative works. Feels great. Your cursor even turns into a fish sometimes. What a hoot!
In particular, I really enjoy this Selfridges Joke Shop window installation series. I was unaware but Selfridges is an upscale department store in the UK; so these sorts of wacky window installations aren't unexpected but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable. Give it a good click through.. here's some of my favorites:
Despite being around since 2015, I'm just now diving into Cities and Memory; an enormous repository of field recordings and found sounds. Their global sound map has contributions from an incredible variety across the planet.
Listening to random field recordings from around the world would be interesting enough (imo) but they take it a step further and invite people to remix these sounds, creating ambient soundscapes interwoven with the captures. You can browse by types of sound or, even better, dig into some of the paired sounds like Music for Sleep, Shortwave Transmissions or (my favorite) Obsolete Sounds.
It's possibly the one place on the Internet you can listen to a field recording of a discontinued coffee grinder and a beautifully, lulling, song made from that same device. Incredible.
The first new song from brand new band Echolalia dropped today - "Odd Energy." Not to abuse the term but the band is a bit of a "supergroup" - consisting of Spencer Cullum, Andrew Combs, Dominic Billett, Jordan Lehning, Jason Lehning, Eli Beaird and Juan Solorzano; all heavy hitters in the Nashville music scene.
I did the vinyl and CD layout (Michael Gaughan did the incredible watercolor) and had the pleasure of hearing the entire record early. It's a fantastic collaborative effort across the board. You will enjoy.. promise!
Matyus ponders the question - are Gif's Art? With a capital A. His ponderance cites Duchamp and "found objects." It's not a lengthy artist's statement but it's worth considering. Scroll through the gallery of Gif's and enjoy them being presented in such a clean and classy way. I think I'd probably pay to see an exhibit like this in real life.
The IMG_0001 project is brilliantly simply - crawl YouTube for videos that use the default filename from the era of iPhones (2009 - 2012) that would send videos over to YouTube with a single button. In short, it's a massive repository of random videos from the nascent era of mobile video. Author Riley Walz says it much better than myself:
Between 2009 and 2012, iPhones had a built-in "Send to YouTube" button in the Photos app. Many of these uploads kept their default IMG_XXXX filenames, creating a time capsule of raw, unedited moments from random lives.
The project was inspired by a similar Ben Wallace project but Walz repository contains 5 million videos. Take it for a spin.
Random aside: this all reminds me of one of my favorite (now vanquished) sites on the web - foundphotos.net. Rest In Peace random photo archive.
"This is the world that you know; the world as it was at the end of the 20th century. It exists now only as part of a neural-interactive simulation that we call the Matrix." &emdash; Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix
I have to imagine that quote has inspired countless sci-fi enthusiasts, researchers and technologists. Actually, I don't have to imagine it because this research paper directly cites it. They go on to ask the question: How close are we to realizing the vision of The Matrix (1999), where AI crafts a fully immersive, interactive world, blurring the line between reality and illusion?
Then it goes into some details and examples about a new interactive, realtime, AI model that they've built that lets you steer an object through a limitless 3D space. They primarily use a car through familiar terrain but the examples further down the page get much more wild. I recommend making sure you scroll all the way down and watch them all. There's no interactive demo yet but you get the gist.
Clearly, here in 2024, we are nowhere near the reality shown in The Matrix (as far as I can tell) but the question the researchers pose does contain a phrase worth pondering a bit. We do not have "fully immersive, interactive worlds," but we do seem to be edging into examples that "blur the line between reality and illusion." It's all about escalation from there, no?
Rather enjoyed this antialiasing nerd out from Jonathan Hoefler. Who better to really dig into the subpixel differences between the same font on two different social platforms? Unsurprising, but no less impressive, to read through how he reached his conclusion on which option feels more natural to a user's eyes.
YouTube decided that I needed to see this video, "flying through fractals using a 90s camcorder. The channel host clearly has a love for "vintage" tech of the 90s and demonstrates a rather unique effect with a very specific camera with a very specific setting enabled with a very specific angle of shooting. It looks so unbelievable, I have a hard time believing it's real! It's that wild!
The goods kick in at 3:37 but I suggest watching up to that to get the background and insight on what is happening.
Sometimes Beaker is the perfect encapsulation of *all the things.* Truth be told, just about any Muppet losing their mind fits the bill. Hope you're having a good week, here's some distractions to slide you into the weekend.
FKA twigs - Drums of Death (choreography glitch) - do I know anything about FKA twigs? No. BUT you don't really need any context to appreciate this combination of choreography, office setting and Aphex Twin style flipping out.
Drive Share - remember the go90 streaming platform of original content brought to you by Verizon? Yea, me neither. But Paul Scheer and Rob Heubel made a series for it called Drive Share and it's pretty funny. All the episodes are here and there's a ton of cameos from names you like. I rather enjoyed this Jason Mantzoukas / Jessica St. Clair episode.
The Curious Case of the Blocked Window - watch this March 1972 BBC broadcast in full and then tell me if it's parody or entirely earnest. I honestly could go either way.
Voyager meets Frasier - in 1996 there was a TV special / documentary called Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond. It's mostly a clip show and talking heads exhalting the show (rightfully). But there's also a sketch about 30 minutes in featuring Captain Janeway with a rather surprising new crew. It's corny but also legitimately entertaining, especially if you grew up on both of these. No shame in enjoying this!
Stupid Cookie Sketch - still enjoying the absurdity of Montessori Boy, even if I'm lightyears behind by watching on YouTube instead of TikTok.
The Ross Sisters - Solid Potato Salad - this takes a full 1:30 to really start. Then it takes another full minute to reveal itself. Stick with it. Insanity awaits.
Been spending some time on the Ampwall Discord and found myself listening to Megafauna's original score for Nosferatu - entitled To The Land of Ghosts. It's intended to be played underneath the film but it works quite well as an atmospheric, somewhat creepy, soundtrack to your day. Excellent find.
