Okay, the world is shit, again. Who thought that it could get worse after the last two years? Yes, here we are and while there are signs that something might be changing, it would also seem that we, as a global society, have to go through more rough times before its going to get better. With that in mind, a little mental health break here at the end of 2022.
So, there’s no actual rhyme, reason or planning here. I just listed things that popped to mind while writing this. Starting with the Peacemaker title sequence.
It’s just so random. Thematically it has nothing to do with the (very good, if a little too James Gunn-y) show, but it doesn’t matter. After seeing it in front of every episode, you begin to see that they choreographed it quite carefully to give everyone something to do, but they are emphasizing the people, who are able to do the moves necessary. Of course, editing makes the whole thing, but that doesn’t matter. It is just a fun thing you wouldn’t expect to see in a show about a conflicted superhero.
Björk managed to yet again stay just as she is and totally reinvent herself. Her new album is her best in a while (and we got a cameo in Northman, a movie which benefited greatly from all the pagan folklore included) and we got this little gem of a music video:
Speaking of music, I have been very delighted by the delighted reaction of Kate Bush to the newly found success of Running Up that Hill. Since it was featured in Stranger Things it has been played hundreds of millions of times and one would hope a whole new generation now finds her music. I don’t even know what the best thing about this is, because it is just so good. Like, did you know that back in the day in the 70s, she was smart enough to negotiate a contract where she owns her own music? This was because back in the day the execs thought tha women couldn’t make anything of lasting value… Well, this one song has made her millions 37 years after publication. If she owned only the songwriting rights, the lower end on Spotify alone would be over two million.
Another thing that found a new audience was Maus, but for very different reasons. It was banned in many schools across the US, which meant that you couldn’t buy it for a while, because the printings were all sold out. It was nice to see how attempts to censor something just resulted in a lot of people learning about it for the first time.
Moving on, I am usually somewhat behind on video games, as I would rather buy them after all the worst kinks have been ironed out. That being said, Marvel Snap is a fun game. It’s everything I want from a mobile game, even if I don’t even play on mobile. It is quite chaotic, but since it doesn’t take very long to play the wild RNG doesn’t really matter, as you can immediately get to the next game.
Randall Munroe’s (of XKCD fame) What If? got a sequel. The whole name is What If?2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. For example, the very first question asked by Amelia age 5 is
What would happen if the Solar System was filled with soup out to Jupiter?
and the section of the book starts with
Then, as the title says, he goes on to explain what would happen. He has a degree in physics and if I remember correctly, before he’s webcomic career he used to work for NASA, so this isn’t just nonsense. There is actual research and math behind all of this… well, nonsense.
Folding Ideas, the YouTube channel by Dan Olsen, roughly doubled it’s subscribers after his now famous video Line Goes Up went viral (I’ve heard so many other YouTubers recommend this video in all sorts of contexts) with close to 10 million views. It is 140 minutes, so get some snacks to watch it.
While I do feel for the people, who didn’t really have the money to gamble on something that isn’t actually even a gamble (NFTs and crypto are just cons), I also do feel schadenfreude towards all the people, who thought they knew what they were doing in this space without actually having a clue. Okay, admittedly, this isn’t as positive as I wanted to go with this post, but here we are. This is what we are reduced to.
Finally, Lindsay Ellis made a comeback after leaving content creation early in the year, even though only on Nebula. Still, I’m glad she’s fine. Her first new video was on Lord of the Rings.
Okay, I have to add this as I’ve been thinking about its inclusion ever since I started writing this. However, this is a bit complicated.
Mimi Parker’s death is obviously not a good thing. If you are not familiar, she was the drummer/vocalist for Low, a band that had only two constant members, her and her husband.
They made slowcore for almost three decades (and I guess they are still officially around). I don’t really know how long I’ve been listening to them, but at least from early 2000s and the weird thing is that they kept getting better.
The good thing about her death was the outpouring of love. Obviously all artists who die young get that, but this was different. Instead of the everpresent “oh, they were such a creative force” (which there were as well), we’d get actual testimonials of how important she was to people. It hits quite differently when someone tells you that they had actually decided to end their life, but changed their mind when listening to a Low record.
I had never thought of them as this important. To me they were just this reliably good band, who’s new releases were always a happy surprise, but it was very interesting and meaningful for me to learn how important she was to other people.
As Culler Ryan (the person behind the aforemetioned story) said in his tweet: Art saves lives.