Issue #123 - The Spaces in Between
Summer Micro Edition #3 - Elevator
Just like last year, I’ll be taking a break over the next four or five issues, so this is a shorter issue than would normally drop into your inbox. I hope that you enjoy this selection of links and pics, feel free to get in touch, and look forward to catching up later in the summer.
I hope that you’re having a good week, many of my academic colleagues have left the campus, but from the look of things, most of you are squirreled away, hammering keyboards, finishing articles, and getting presentations ready. It’s a busy time of year.
We’re heading to the UK on Monday, so rushing to get a few things ready, and looking forward to our trip, it will be the first time that we’ll have been back since the pandemic started, and although we’ve had FaceTime and Zoom calls, it will be good to be with people. This last week, each of us wrote down three things that we’re looking forward to, and I have to confess that two out of my three are beverage-based, but in different places, with wonderful views, in great company.
Here is a list of things…
‘An act of solidarity,’ I just had to highlight this wonderful gesture by my colleagues Tatyana and David, two Russian language teachers who are using discretionary funds to take Ukrainian courses, and support scholars who have been displaced by the war.
My title used to be Content Producer, but now the word ‘content’ only means everything we produce on behalf of and for social media in a way that is just feeding an “indistinguishable flow” where any context is lost, where meaning is fleeting, where scrolling is an addiction.
I’ve been glued to the January 6 Hearings, with its masterful delivery of narrative, slowly revealing, through the fog of deceit, the terrifying story of a president who couldn’t stand to have lost an election, so made up the idea that he had really won, and then tried to stay in power through any means possible, first sending out an army of lawyers before turning the mob on those who refused to go along with the charade.
See above. Great big noisy FU by Willy Mason, turn it up and open the window when you’re driving in the car. It’s worth more but you can pay what you want at Bandcamp.
I know that everyone is posting about this, but this feels like the plot of the summer read that you’ll be taking to the beach. An engineer at Google claims the AI system they are working on has become sentient, and why despite everything you know, you want it to be true, because there is such a thing as sentient bias, and also why religion and technology are a toxic mix.
For footy fans, an imagined video call between former Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa and PSG’s Mauricio Pochettino. “every failure forms us. It builds us. It brings us closer to the truth.”
Democrats are campaigning for a universal charger, for phones, and tablets after the EU reached a deal forcing everything to be equipped with USB-C. Of course, the GOP will reject this techno-woke nonsense, freedom means using any damn charger you want and screw the cost to the environment.
Just like everyone else, I’ve reassessed Paul McCartney’s contribution to greatness after Get Back! but I take issue with this ranking of solo material, missing “From a lover to a friend” okay, so it is a bit slushy, but the chorus is pure Macca.
I fell down a rabbit hole clicking the links in this post by Erik Winkowski. Their work is showing alongside other talented animators and collage artists at a screening of Collage in Motion at the Broad Cinema in New Orleans. Here’s a link to Erik’s website and showreel.
There’s something Gondry-esque about this Radiohead music video and the behind-the-scenes footage confirms it. Filmmaking is problem-solving, essentially, how are we going to do this and it not cost too much money?
Thank You
Okay, got to get packing. Hope you’re well, see you next week.