BY MYSELF – Abdul Wadud
Self-released in 1977 and out of print until its reissue earlier this year, Wadud's solo masterpiece sounds as throughly modern and daring now as I can only imagine it did when it first landed. Essential.
(insta)deactivated
After much searching through menus and settings (and an unwillingness on the part of the app on the iPad to scroll down far enough to hit the "deactivate" button requiring me to go to a computer), finally hit the deactivate button (six days early, but to hell with it: those who wanted to stay connected have already done so, the rest, bye): my Insta-presence is no more. Aside from that one video with the "get that shit out of my face" vegan frog (which I did watch about 35 times before hitting deactivate: that "motherfucker stop, STOP!" shriek kills me every time), I don't miss any of it.
(And when Threads launched, I realized I didn't really need or want another microblogging conversation platform: that's what this space and the Fediverse are for / Note: still want to use the FV for my comment system here; running out of time before the next annual bill comes due.)
Didn't go full delete on Insta because I'm enough of a shit that I don't want the other Tylers Weaver to have that account name. I've protected it long enough, even added the extra W to myself, across multiple platforms and decades, this being my third (holy shit).
Related/un–: I anticipate the day that some startup buys (or pulls a Muskian coup on SpaceKaren himself) the Twitter name and the rights and the bird and brings it back, sort of like Twinkies and PBR, banking on nostalgia as a (highly viable) business model. As someone rightly said, the brand was the only thing that didn't need fixing at Twitter.
Anyhow byebye massive communication/advertising conglomerate techbro companies. We had our laughs and our cries and our successes and our failures but it's time to move on. Internet dinosaur powers: activate.
THE VILLAINESS (Jung Byung-gil, 2017)
(Directed by Jung Byung-gil from a script by Jung and Jung Byeong-sik; starring Kim Ok-vin, Shin Ha-kyun, Sung Joon, Kim Seo-hyung, Jo Eun-jil, and Kim Yeon-woo. Released 21 May 2017; watched 2023w31 via Prime.)
A treasure unearthed (and consumed with urgency) thanks to the most recent Polygon end-of-the-month, "catch them before they leave streaming" piece and, in the best tradition of South Korean genre cinema, one hell of a revenge story that's so very, very much more: led by brilliant performances from stars Kim Ok-vin, Shin Ha-Kyun, and Sung Joon and by turns exhilarating (those action sequences, JFC), pastoral, horrific, comedic, hopeful, and heart-wrenching (I refuse to apply the overused "heartbreaking," thanks CBR), THE VILLAINESS is truly something special. Blu purchased as soon as credits rolled (with three hours and some change to spare before it exited Prime), Jawan Koo's score the soundtrack to today’s work.
Haven't been this excited / inspired / enthralled by a film in awhile; hopeful it will bring with it an ability to be excited by other films again... I've missed the ability to recharge through cinema for far too long.
THE SHADOW promotional matchbooks, 1945
Second of my two promotional matchbooks for THE SHADOW radio show, from 1945, joined The Collection today. While this latest procurement has far better and more inventive visuals, the first one still has some of the matches inside.
According to Martin Grams, Jr, in his definitive history of the radio show:
The aforementioned, still-combustible set…
Not sure if there are more variations of them or if I now have the only two variants. If so, very cool. If not, please correct me.
The first two-three weeks of summer break are like Friday afternoon, the next six like Saturday, and the last two-three like Sunday evening.
CURSED HEIDI or, generative nightmarish bemusement
Farm animals watching a film with effortless transitions to Tiki-bearing screaming rabble (or was it the other way 'round)? All that and more in Patrick Karpiczenko's profoundly disturbing AI-generated CURSED HEIDI trailer, sourced from this excellent Daily Beast piece, "AI Won't Just Replace TV and Movie Writers--It Will Make Pop Culture a Nightmare":