tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.comments2024-03-18T17:20:21.775-04:00Face to Faceagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger25286125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-86472288237350523642024-03-18T17:20:21.775-04:002024-03-18T17:20:21.775-04:00Irys sang "Tsugaru Kaikyo-Fuyugeshiki" f...Irys sang "Tsugaru Kaikyo-Fuyugeshiki" for her Valentine's Day karaoke... perhaps she can fulfill her destiny as a Japanese diva, and add "Amagi-goe" to a future setlist? ^_^<br /><br />It's such a kickass song, she should want to perform it for the personal thrill of it -- but even if not for that reason, then to answer the call of the Japanese culture gods, who demand that she perform it in order to be a truly Japanese performer. It's no longer a personal preference, but a rendez-vous with destiny... xD<br /><br />She would knock it out of the park, too! But it would involve some training and practice beforehand, not something you can just wing off-the-cuff.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-70494321494701659652024-03-18T16:59:17.751-04:002024-03-18T16:59:17.751-04:00Back to Enka music for a second, the central role ...Back to Enka music for a second, the central role of waterfalls in Japanese geo-identity shows up in Sayuri Ishikawa's iconic passionate love-song "Amagi-goe", which mentions Jouren Falls by name, and there is a commemorative plaque at the site to say it's the inspiration for that biggest karaoke hit of all time.<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amagi-goe<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dren_Falls<br /><br />Similar to the iconic status of "Rocky Mountain High" mentioning the Rocky Mountains, or the Shenandoah River in "Take Me Home, Country Roads".<br /><br />Since I've mentioned that song several times, here's the original -- with its hard-edged Tsugaru shamisen strumming, '80s power ballad guitars, and volcanic eruption of a diva's voice:<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1eSNPh3X1Y<br /><br />Lots of Holo JP girls have sung it for karaoke. But to fully capture the iconic Japanese-y status of it, here is Marine's 3D live from last November, where she and Kanata performed it as a duet, in traditional Japanese costumes, shot as though it were a Showa era TV program. So cool! ^_^<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcKNGnIB5kgagnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-34074087749750240302024-03-18T16:43:16.456-04:002024-03-18T16:43:16.456-04:00I'm still working on bridges in Japanese cultu...I'm still working on bridges in Japanese culture, too. They absolutely LOVE them, nothing more Japanese than a bridge. But those are bridges over water, whereas the American obsession is with bridges over open space, above solid ground (not a Medieval moat).<br /><br />But in the same way that Americans excavate a site in order to make the former "ground level" stand 10 feet above the now scooped-out lower level, so they can build a bridge across the excavated open space, the Japanese will irrigate a small stream into a location just so they can build a tiny foot-bridge across it.<br /><br />You see that in video games all the time, or in Studio Ghibli landscapes. This really clicked in my brain while watching Lui play Dragon Quest VI, when she got to the town of Amoru:<br /><br />https://www.realmofdarkness.net/dq/wp-content/img/snes/dq6/maps/amoru.png<br /><br />An ordinary town would just have flat land, with no water or bridges. But this town has not one, not two, but count 'em THREE pointless / ornamental bridges in its small footprint. The shape of the stream underneath is totally unnatural, it's only there so that 3 bridges could be built on top.<br /><br />And it has a waterfall, too! Two central elements of Japanese geo-identity in one town -- waterfalls, and bridges! ^_^<br /><br />Chinese culture also likes bridges -- but only when they're way up high and rickety, connecting two rockfaces across a deep plunging gorge. Lots of those in the ink-wash paintings. Distinct from the American sky-bridges / elevated walkways, which are used as part of a larger developed building complex -- the Chinese bridges connect two places that are otherwise totally natural, not architectural, i.e. one rock formation and the other.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-56941973444740063292024-03-18T16:28:18.541-04:002024-03-18T16:28:18.541-04:00Plenty more to come on the topics of Brutalism, ma...Plenty more to come on the topics of Brutalism, malls, and BRIDGES!<br /><br />So much synchronicity with bridges lately -- noticing that bridge from the Xerox sales HQ building from Coma, just a few nights after seeing a small office park with bridges leading from a central plaza / terrace out to the three separate office buildings (same night as I walked under that Brutalist ribbed concrete overpass), and fondly remembering the Brutalist dorm I used to live in, which had bridges leading to the residential buildings themselves, from a central plaza / terrace... and many other examples!<br /><br />I'll put these into a separate standalone post, with pictures (once I collect enough).<br /><br />Aside from feeling like fortresses, it also makes the complex feel like a treetop village -- with elevated walkways or sky-bridges, a la the Ewok Village from Return of the Jedi, or the Channelwood world in Myst.<br /><br />These Brutalist complexes also often had exterior spiral staircases to ascend or descend, and the treetop village also employs this element (like Channelwood). In the treetop village, the stairs wrap around the outside of a massive tree trunk -- in a Brutalist complex, around a massive concrete pillar.<br /><br />A back-to-forested-nature jungle gym, made from concrete and brick in an urban or suburban setting -- so cool! ^_^agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-9188861715587574312024-03-18T16:15:20.836-04:002024-03-18T16:15:20.836-04:00God, does it feel awesome to link to a fellow Blog...God, does it feel awesome to link to a fellow Blogspot location! ^_^<br /><br />Although tellingly, that 2012 post on Holyoke Mall was its last -- like most other sites of the blogosphere, it lies in ruins, and I'm rummaging through what remains there. <br /><br />They were driven by an internal warm-and-fuzzy reward -- I am driven by an external calling for inspiration. And so, I will never abandon my post! Not until I literally drop dead.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-53054604199840609342024-03-18T16:09:06.009-04:002024-03-18T16:09:06.009-04:00Credit where it's due, somehow New England Pur...Credit where it's due, somehow New England Puritans have managed to preserve Holyoke Mall fairly intact -- it's still operating, the warm wood paneling is still everywhere, the exterior is still ribbed concrete (though one region painted to create a two-tone effect -- no big deal, looks fine), although as usual most of the plant life has been uprooted by the Democrats.<br /><br />Nothing equal or better was put in place of the plants, and because it was already developed, and the plants were purely ornamental, this was another case of entirely nihilistic anti-aesthetic iconoclasm, not a materialist profit-motive calculation.<br /><br />Perhaps cuz it's in Western Mass, and not contaminated by the black hole of Boston? I dunno, but it's a miracle that a '70s Brutalist mall is still largely intact back East.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-43930398962474827452024-03-18T16:04:04.948-04:002024-03-18T16:04:04.948-04:00Brutalist mall exterior, warm lush Midcentury Mode...Brutalist mall exterior, warm lush Midcentury Modern interior, as the pairing always went. Holyoke Mall, MA (opened 1979).<br /><br />First, the vertically ribbed concrete exterior ("fluting" if it were Roman), with a floating slab bridge leading to the fortress-like entrance -- all it's missing is a portcullis!<br /><br />https://thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/2006/10/holyoke-mall-at-ingleside-holyoke.html<br /><br />Then, the warm amber-y wood paneling that is extensively used throughout the interior, not to mention verdant plants of all shapes and sizes, and expanse of warm tile? or carpet? in red, orange, and yellow along the floor, all flooded with sunlight from the cell-segmented glass dome.<br /><br />https://thecaldorrainbow.blogspot.com/2012/04/take-me-back-to-this-holyoke-mall-land.html<br /><br />In the same way that Gothic architecture cannot study the exteriors and interiors separately, Brutalist architecture can never be studied without attention to its Midcentury Modern interiors. Imagine how boring a Gothic cathedral would come across to you, if you never went inside and saw the stained glass windows, especially during daylight when they're the most brilliant?<br /><br />Gothic exteriors have more encrusted ornamentation on their exteriors than Romanesque buildings do, or Roman buildings do -- but they're still not very striking just from the outside. It's on the inside where all the sensual razzle-dazzle happens.<br /><br />And so it was with Brutalist malls -- imposing concrete fortresses from outside, on the inside filled with sumptuous red carpet, verdant plant life, water cascading into ponds, figured wood paneling, and massive geometric sculptures in gleaming chrome.<br /><br />Anyone who shit-talks Brutalism or malls has either never experience one for real, or is just jealous that American culture created its own distinctive variation on a timeless and universal theme. Shit-talkers are just bitter and seething that they aren't living in 18th-century Paris -- there could not be less relevant "voices" (whining) to listen to in modern America.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-68443521591896316952024-03-18T15:37:01.729-04:002024-03-18T15:37:01.729-04:00Also note the lush verdant natural environment tha...Also note the lush verdant natural environment that Brutalist buildings were always set within, if possible -- not possible if it was in an existing highly developed urban city block.<br /><br />But an "institute"? -- that has to be set in a more remote location, green grass, tall trees with plenty of canopy cover, plump bushes and hedges. It has to be an eternal Edenic pastoral idyllic paradise -- with a contempo fortress built within it, just like Medieval fortresses, Early Modern country estates / compounds, or Ancient villas.<br /><br />Always judge from contemporaneous pictures -- even if they're miraculously still standing in 2024, it's likely that most of the bushes, hedges, and trees have been demolished in the meantime. Especially during the woketard 2010s and now in the 2020s.<br /><br />None of those tree-choppers cleared a space for "more development" -- the dumbest right-wing or left-wing critique of tree-choppers. The space had already been developed and built on -- the bushes, hedges, and trees were entirely ornamental. Removing them frees up 0 new square feet to build upon.<br /><br />Tree-chopping is an entirely iconoclastic, anti-nature crusade to despoil what remains of our primitive Noble Savage lifestyle in the modern world. Part of the Cult of Crap -- rather than create anything new, let alone better than what is already there, merely eradicate the beautiful and sublime things that a previous lively and cooperative society had created.<br /><br />Remember that Democrats are 100% to blame for this tree-chopping crusade. They are in blue cities, especially in blue states, in office buildings where libtard businesses operate -- not an oil refinery, military barracks, or farm. And the nearby apartment complexes where the libtard professionals are housed.<br /><br />Republicans are the more nature-leaning party, being more rural-based. They don't make a crusade out of chopping down trees -- especially when doing so cannot possibly lead to an alternative use of their footprint, e.g. clearing part of a forest to build housing or workplaces. When it's an entirely ornamental use of plant life -- guaranteed, the Democrats are going to rip them out, root and branch, within your lifetime, if they haven't already.<br /><br />And if there weren't things like Google street view, which has a history of pictures going back over the years, you might not even be aware that your apartment complex or office building used to be filled with trees, bushes, and hedges.<br /><br />Nobody napalms nature like Democrats -- not just cuz they're the urbanite party and want more housing built! They destroy plants that are purely ornamental on already-developed land! Nihilistic, iconoclastic, heritage-hating, soul-sucking bug-brains!agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-28603519078038033172024-03-18T15:21:01.067-04:002024-03-18T15:21:01.067-04:00More warm, lush Brutalist interior shots of the Xe...More warm, lush Brutalist interior shots of the Xerox sales HQ building, from Coma -- warm red carpet, highly figured woods, elegant chrome.<br /><br />https://thechemistryset.tumblr.com/post/96650437867/coma-1978-former-xerox-sales-office-lexington<br /><br />Also correction: the remodel did not demolish the outer bridge altogether, but shifted it to the right, linking it to a new ugly glass-box addition, and the bridge itself is an ugly glass box, a rectangular tunnel / corridor, with its *own* doored entrance -- rather than the floating slab that made it feel like the bridge to enter a fortress.<br /><br />https://www.reddit.com/r/evilbuildings/comments/y03laq/currently_an_office_for_mimecast_in_lexington_ma/agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-59385122181928485352024-03-17T22:11:27.197-04:002024-03-17T22:11:27.197-04:00Also compare: the death of Queen Elizabeth II afte...Also compare: the death of Queen Elizabeth II after the British Empire collapsed vs the death of Queen Victoria at the height of the British Empire. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-33131996281397778112024-03-17T20:19:46.048-04:002024-03-17T20:19:46.048-04:00Speaking of Dragon Quest, Akira Toriyama recently ...Speaking of Dragon Quest, Akira Toriyama recently died. He was a comic book / manga artist, created the Dragon Ball franchise (mostly known from the anime TV series), and was character creator for the Dragon Quest video game franchise, as well as for the cult classic Chrono Trigger.<br /><br />Many of the Holo JP girls wrote a commemoration post on their Twitter account, or sang songs related to his works during their next karaoke (Luna sang "Wai Wai World," the theme for the early 1980s Dr. Slump anime, based on his manga). Lui happened to be playing a Dragon Quest game (DQ Monsters 2) and when the final credits rolled, she mournfully mentioned "Toriyama-san..." when his name appeared.<br /><br />Only weebs mentioned his passing outside of Japan -- but that's to be expected, since he is far more central to Japanese culture than to non-Japanese culture.<br /><br />The real point is, who would American, European, South Korean, or Mexican streamers commemorate once they died? Probably only a singer -- the outpouring when Michael Jackson was huge, ditto for Whitney Houston, Prince, David Bowie, and on and on.<br /><br />Hardly anyone notices or does much when a TV or movie actor dies, let alone someone from the video game world.<br /><br />Ken and Roberta Williams, who spearheaded the American PC video game world during the '80s and '90s, at Sierra Online during the text-parser and later point-and-click adventure heyday -- sadly, nobody would notice or commemorate them. Only the YouTuber, former podcaster Metal Jesus Rocks, cuz he's Gen X and cuz he literally worked for them as tech support for Sierra Online back in the '90s.<br /><br />Any of the creators of Myst, Doom, Goldeneye, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Bioshock, and others that took American video games in the 3D simulator direction that is now the standard outside of Japan? No way.<br /><br />Perhaps Gabe Newell, producer of Half-Life, but even then known only to current "gamers" cuz Valve is responsible for Steam, the video game streaming service, not a specific video game that Valve has created.<br /><br />I think music is again the partial exception, where non-Japanese people would notice and mourn and pay tribute to a video game music composer like Jeremy Soule if he died.<br /><br />But because American culture and society are disintegrating, its members don't feel like "a loss of one is a loss to us all" -- especially a central figure in our culture -- like we used to.<br /><br />Japan is still fairly cohesive, so when a central figure in their culture dies, it stings, and everyone feels compelled to commemorate them and begin the healing process.<br /><br />In America, there's no healing process to begin, because we largely don't feel the sting anymore when a central figure of our culture dies.<br /><br />It was hard keeping track of all of them who died in the single year of 2016 -- I still remember only Prince and David Bowie -- but even those two only got semi-commemorations by the culture as a whole. Not like when MJ died in 2009, when Kurt Cobain shot himself in 1994, or when JFK got assassinated in 1963.<br /><br />Even a broadly appealing singer like Taylor Swift would not get MJ or Whitney levels of commemoration these days, and no politician of either party would get commemorated like JFK if assassinated.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-65512728368994360612024-03-17T19:45:03.000-04:002024-03-17T19:45:03.000-04:00The JP side of Hololive, where it was born, has ma...The JP side of Hololive, where it was born, has many examples of Gura-tier dedication to a larger and more enduring culture than that of her own individual life experience. Korone, Okayu, Marine, Akirose, Pekora, Subaru (who did an entire hand-cam stream of trying out retro toys from before the 1990s), just to name the most obvious examples among many others.<br /><br />If just one of them had to raise a small child, the entire JP side would not suffer.<br /><br />I hate being a downer on the weekend of Holo Fes, but it's hard to deny how much the non-Japanese vtuber and even face-streamer world has fallen off a cliff after Gura's semi-departure. It's not just Holo EN, it's all vtubers, and all face-streamers. And it's not just Americans but Koreans, Chinese, Euros, everyone.<br /><br />And in any case, Holo Fes is Japanese -- the location, the vast majority of the audience, and most performers, as well as the behind-the-scenes staff. That kind of vtuber Woodstock could never happen outside Japan, which retains a very high level of national cultural cohesion, and therefore where an entire scene does not rest on one individual's shoulders.<br /><br />If somebody did want to make recommendations about movies, TV series, and video games -- they should direct them toward a Japanese audience. They still feel compelled to integrate themselves into a long-term culture, not just focus on their individual brands and life experiences.<br /><br />It's very rare to see a Holo JP karaoke setlist that reflects "what I personally liked during my formative adolescent years". There will be some of that, too -- along with standards and classics stretching much farther back. And not just songs, but TV series, movies, video games, etc.<br /><br />Out of nowhere last week, Pekora streamed Mario 3 over two days and totaling nearly 18 hours, and she had not played it before -- she was not reliving previous experiences of maxing out her dopamine receptors, for nostalgia purposes. It's because Mario and Nintendo are Japanese, and she's Japanese, working as a Japanese entertainer -- she *must* play the Mario games for her audience, at some point.<br /><br />Just one of countless examples -- Korone and Lui collabing for the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (and those two have such amazing ying-yang chemistry with each other), Lui's ongoing series of the Dragon Quest franchise, and so on and so forth.<br /><br />They're all well integrated into Japanese culture, and use their streamer platforms to preserve that culture.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-10887439724852054152024-03-17T19:37:53.039-04:002024-03-17T19:37:53.039-04:00To give credit where it's due, Gura was the be...To give credit where it's due, Gura was the best at taking suggestions, recommendations, and direction. She's a Zoomer, but somehow uncorrupted by the vast network of forces that make everyone else not give a shit about their own culture and history anymore.<br /><br />And she's a New Englander on top of it -- even more miraculous!<br /><br />It wasn't just specific movies that she did watchalongs for (like Jaws and Star Wars, which she had not seen before), or classic songs she kept in regular rotation for karaoke -- it was the entire culture.<br /><br />She wanted to make commercials, host a game show, make a hand-drawn animation with a musical soundtrack -- and as she kept reminding us, if she wasn't a streamer, she wanted to be one of those "living history" actors, like in Williamsburg or something.<br /><br />She wanted to fit in to a higher collective, not just be her own brand. And carry on the traditions and culture of that higher collective, whatever they are -- whether she initially wanted to or not. There's some higher calling she felt compelled to listen to, and she's playing a role in a drama that some higher force has written for her.<br /><br />She's a total muse.<br /><br />She only stopped her regular fulfillment of those duties cuz she's raising a small child, understandable.<br /><br />Irys is also somewhat willing to take recommendations and direction, but then she's culturally half-Japanese and living there for years now.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-61749879830136730642024-03-17T19:12:53.942-04:002024-03-17T19:12:53.942-04:00When I do these wide-ranging discussions, I'm ...When I do these wide-ranging discussions, I'm not making an urgent sales pitch to any demographic, whether Gen X or Gen Z. There's no point in that, they've either already picked up those habits and know about these movies (or where to find lists of them, and go through them), or they're never going to be interested.<br /><br />Maybe if the American public school system changed to reflect our cultural output, emphasizing movies and TV shows rather than so-so novels from the 20th century, post-X generations would develop an appreciation for them, having been raised on them.<br /><br />Or maybe if the American media played them in re-runs, i.e. preserving them and making people watch them. But they don't do that either.<br /><br />Rather, I imagine writing for future historians or scholars, so they don't have to re-invent the wheel that I've already discovered (for my original insights), or if they just want a basic understanding and description of what's going on here and now, they can consult my chronicle.<br /><br />During imperial collapse and decay, everyone else is a lost cause at the big picture level. Of course, the minority who are interested can read this blog and enjoy it -- but it's not for them, or me, it's for a higher and more distant audience, and I'm not doing it for pure pleasure, but to fulfill a calling / vocation.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-77925996332733711672024-03-17T19:05:56.797-04:002024-03-17T19:05:56.797-04:00I did mention once that Mumei would enjoy the cons...I did mention once that Mumei would enjoy the conspiracy movies of the '70s, or later incarnations from the '90s like Twin Peaks, X-Files, and many episodes of Star Trek: TNG.<br /><br />But I don't think most Millennials or Zoomers care about experiencing the classics, and preserving them in whatever way they can (like doing a watchalong if they're a streamer, or discussing them if they host a podcast, etc.).<br /><br />Gen X was the last generation to feel compelled to do these things -- whether as a compulsion to experience aesthetic greatness, a social pressure to be cool, or a sense of duty to enculturate yourself into the national culture.<br /><br />It's different in Japan, naturally -- plenty of Millennials and even Zoomers there still do these things, whether it's pre-modern Japanese culture or 1980s anime and video games.<br /><br />Americans have stopped caring, though. So there's no point in making recommendations on a large scale anymore -- like those "1000 movies / video games / albums you MUST experience before you die" books from the 2000s or so.<br /><br />Even then, it was an individualist focus, like "If you want to maximally stimulate your dopamine receptors, here are the specific cultural products to do it with."<br /><br />Not a collectivist focus -- "If you want to be a real member of the gamer community, you MUST play these games."<br /><br />From my limited experience, you can still recommend songs to them, and they'll look into them. But TV shows, movies, video games, and other long-form things they will not.<br /><br />It's not an attention-span thing -- they still watch TV shows, movies, and play video game consoles. They just don't care about what was made before the 2010s or maybe the 2000s, no need to experience it and pass it along in a chain of tranmission where they're doing their little dutiful part, like we all used to.<br /><br />And yes, this is a radical change -- back in the '70s, total normies used to watch what are now considered "cult classics". Take the supposed year that ended New Hollywood and ushered in the blockbuster era, 1975.<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_in_film<br /><br />The #1 movie at the box office was Jaws -- itself now a cult classic, not something that everyone sees at some point. But #2 and #3 were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the Rocky Horror Picture Show! Dog Day Afternoon (#5) and Three Days of the Condor (#7) are also cult classics now, in the '70s thriller genre.<br /><br />But they didn't all break into the top 10 ranking of tickets purchased by being obscure, niche, curated shibboleths for gatekeeping edgelords. Every fucking normie American saw these movies in the good ol' days, for whatever reason.<br /><br />Now nobody does, outside of some niche gatekeeping sect.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-90115185865499804262024-03-17T18:43:25.068-04:002024-03-17T18:43:25.068-04:00As for recommendations, any list if you google &qu...As for recommendations, any list if you google "1970s thrillers" or "1970s conspiracy thrillers" ought to do it. Then you can read the description to see if it's what you're looking for, whether there's a scientific angle to it for example.<br /><br />But as for one off the top of my head, if you like Coma, definitely The China Syndrome -- made just one year later, starring Michael Douglas (and Jane Fonda -- who also starred in must-see '70s thriller Klute, directed by Alan Pakula and shot by Gordon Willis).<br /><br />Set in a tech-y modern workplace (nuclear power plant), although not much of a deliberate plan for perfecting mankind as a cover-up of the downsides of nuclear power.<br /><br />Similar to Network, in the Everyman salaryman who is willing to become a martyr against the Powers That Be, on behalf of the common people. But not comical or satirical like Network, more raw -- without being emo, hard-edged, or action-y, despite it being a disaster movie.<br /><br />Also shot on good ol' Eastman 5247, the super contrasty film stock of the mid-'70s and into some of the '80s.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-65314882801810295832024-03-17T18:37:18.354-04:002024-03-17T18:37:18.354-04:00I thought WASPs feel the most guilty and "wok...I thought WASPs feel the most guilty and "woke" about the American Empire.Aidan Barretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09206683868950960625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-57091830458327763342024-03-17T18:25:18.811-04:002024-03-17T18:25:18.811-04:00The dark org in Stranger Things is also not an &qu...The dark org in Stranger Things is also not an "institute" but a lab -- albeit still with a WASP-y name, Hawkins National Laboratory.<br /><br />After the '70s, we couldn't even dream big on the level of "what name do we give it?"...agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-20155292713822740542024-03-17T18:17:10.990-04:002024-03-17T18:17:10.990-04:00The conspiracy theme of Coma also recalls our impe...The conspiracy theme of Coma also recalls our imperial heyday, when high-scale plots could be conceived and executed by a high-level cadre.<br /><br />During disintegration, those high-scale levels don't exist anymore. These days, the CIA can only conspire over whether to order Pizza Hut or Domino's for their next pointless meeting. All their coups have failed for the past 70 years.<br /><br />The last successful one was the 1953 coup against Mussadegh in Iran, which didn't last long anyway -- one generation later, the Islamic Revolution blew up, and put Iran forever out of America's control, indeed bitterly opposed to American interests.<br /><br />They couldn't even take back Cuba, which we won in the 1898 Spanish-American War, even though it's a small island right next to Florida. And they had a lot greater chance of success in the early 1960s than we do now, but even the Bay of Pigs invasion failed pathetically.<br /><br />Non-governmental conspiracies (the likes of which would be hatched by an "institute") likewise don't exist anymore, nobody can cooperate at high scales these days, whether for good or evil.<br /><br />And no, the social media cartel censorship and the like is not a high-level conspiracy. First of all, they're not secretive -- they openly say, "If you're a Trump-sympathetic independent or to the right, you can't speak your mind or advocate for policies online".<br /><br />Conspiracy implies a hidden, secretive, obscure / opaque nature, not straight-up Orwellian memory-holing and Two Minutes Hate.<br /><br />Conspiracy dovetails with the theme of paranoia -- and you're not paranoid if They really are out to get you, openly and shamelessly. Then it's just Us vs. Them warfare, factional conflict, etc., not a conspiracy whose insidious secretiveness makes some of its targets question their own sanity -- could such a thing *really* be unfolding? It's almost too crazy to believe, and yet you have to consider...<br /><br />These paranoid conspiracy movies and books peaked in the '70s, along with the American empire as a whole (Brutalist architecture, lowest % of the population being foreign-born, classic rock, chrome and woodgrain cars, Star Wars, and the rest of it).<br /><br />They've rapidly fallen off ever since, and are basically non-existent after the '90s. Probably some video games from the 2000s, that I'm unaware of, like Perfect Dark. But movies and TV? Gone as a genre, with only very isolated examples like Stranger Things from the 2010s (and nothing this decade).<br /><br />Even the names have changed -- in The Game (1997), also starring Michael Douglas as in Coma (1978), the antagonistic organization is called "Consumer Recreation Services" -- not an "institute". Consumer services is way more crassly neoliberal than a Midcentury utopian guardian council for the perfecting of mankind.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-42153653919520499262024-03-17T17:51:55.401-04:002024-03-17T17:51:55.401-04:00Brutalist ribbing is the same as "fluting&quo...Brutalist ribbing is the same as "fluting" on Roman columns, ornamentally / aesthetically, often on the same exact architectural element (a cylindrical support, like a column / pier). It's not functional.<br /><br />It just reinforces how baseless the support for Roman (or the non-existent, contradictory "Greco-Roman") architecture is, when they hate so cluelessly on the exact same things in 20th-C American Brutalism.<br /><br />It's just a LARP, not an aesthetic sensibility -- and even then, not LARP-ing as Romans (about which they're clueless), but as Early Modern Western Euros, who themselves were LARP-ing as Ancient Romans.<br /><br />An aesthetic sensibility would make them like the same thing no matter where and when it manifested. They're just sad, impotent, irrelevant LARP-ers, who need to remember:<br /><br />>ywnb an 18th-century French aristocratagnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-6594529357204029962024-03-17T17:41:00.250-04:002024-03-17T17:41:00.250-04:00Perhaps not the greatest examples of either genre,...Perhaps not the greatest examples of either genre, but only a few examples will be the greatest -- these examples show how widespread and common such examples used to be, it was populist rather than elitist. Everyone today still has at least a few aging examples of "pop Brutalism" around them.<br /><br />Just the other night, I went on a long walk and noticed something I'd never appreciated before, cuz I'm used to driving -- an underpass built from concrete, with the ribbed texture that was common for Brutalist ornamentation. Not just in one direction -- one panel had it horizontal, another next to it was vertical, there was a thin strip that had its own ribbing, and the piers supporting the overpass were ribbed all the way around!<br /><br />Luckily there was a date of construction -- 1990! Very late example, but cool nonetheless, and miraculously left standing, after the 2010s anti-American woketard iconoclasm that demolished countless examples of America's iconic national architectural style (Brutalism).<br /><br />But I'm in the Midwest, not back East, where woketard iconoclasm has been the most sacrilegious and pervasive -- they're not really American back there, so what do they care if they lay waste to America's distinctive culture? Both libtards and conservatards alike have teamed up to destroy America along the East Coast.<br /><br />Hearing Tucker Carlson rag on Brutalist architecture shows he hasn't fully reconstructed himself from his trad-LARP bowtie East Coast roots. Nobody loves demolishing Brutalist building more than government agencies in blue cities within blue states within the Bos-Wash black hole.<br /><br />Pathetic to see cultural conservatives eagerly link arms with these sacrilegious anti-American libtard scum -- but they'll never understand, let alone appreciate and preserve, Americana. Sadly those examples will all get demolished at some point, and the real America will just have to let them go and preserve our own examples.<br /><br />Even a mundane overpass!<br /><br />Not to mention countless office buildings with coffered window surroundings on the outer walls, in every American city throughout the land. You don't have to make an expensive or elite pilgrimmage to see them -- they were brought to the common people's own neighborhoods!agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-53308541247373142082024-03-17T17:35:57.933-04:002024-03-17T17:35:57.933-04:00The architecture and design in Coma are pure Midce...The architecture and design in Coma are pure Midcentury utopian awesomeness, Brutalist buildings and Midcentury Modern interior design.<br /><br />https://limelightmagazine.com/2021/01/29/filminglocationspotlight-coma/<br /><br />https://twitter.com/Marialovessea/status/1234377540564856832<br /><br />None of the haters of Brutalism ever mention the interiors, which were warm, luscious, and sensual, where red carpet and amber-stained woods were essential.<br /><br />Note the desecration and blandification of the remodel of the former Xerox sales HQ in Lexington, MA. (The East Coast is the worst offender of anti-American iconoclasm against Brutalism.) They removed the high-up bridge, which makes it less of a castle or fortress. And they flattened the exterior walls with window rows.<br /><br />In the original, the windows are not looking directly outward, perpendicular to the outer walls. They're angled, and are surrounded by a kind of coffer that makes up the outer wall. The outer wall isn't flat, it has a zig-zagged / triangular pattern running along its width, and the windows are set within this zig-zag pattern.<br /><br />Brutalism loved coffers, like the ceilings of the DC Metro, which I now unironically love, and which LARP-y tards hate, despite claiming to look to Roman architecture as a paragon. Look at the Pantheon -- largest unreinforced dome, and it's made out of concrete, unpainted, and with a geometric / matrix of coffers / cells. Just like the DC Metro, you LARP-ing faggots!<br /><br />Or Pereira's many buildings at the UC Irvine campus, this time around the windows on the outer wall, instead of being purely aesthetic like on a ceiling.<br /><br />The Xerox sales HQ, shown in Coma, has an unusual coffering in that the windows are in-set on 3 sides rather than all 4, and if other buildings did that, they usually left the bottom side uncoffered. This building has the left side uncoffered, basically against the outer edge, while the top, bottom, and right sides have coffering -- making for an asymmetric effect, where the left side is along the outer edge, while the right side is deeply in-set. Dynamic, energetic -- not stale and lifeless!agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-75955715149563012702024-03-17T17:07:57.287-04:002024-03-17T17:07:57.287-04:00Lots of academic institutes from the utopian Midce...Lots of academic institutes from the utopian Midcentury -- Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, etc.<br /><br />The name "institute" tells you these aren't latter-day monasteries or libraries, but guided by a council of guardians of American society (or Western civ, or humanity as a whole). Study, and technology, are just a means for realizing the utopian plans of the guardian council.<br /><br />That's also why they need WASP-y names, to tell you it's the deep founders of the nation / empire who are in charge, and are acting as long-term historical stewards of American society by spearheading the institute.<br /><br />They can't have Ellis Islander names, since those guys are a lot more recent and not as trustworthy as deep historical stewards.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-39051229600819322652024-03-17T16:56:55.454-04:002024-03-17T16:56:55.454-04:00Coma is awesome, some things of note about its bro...Coma is awesome, some things of note about its broader zeitgeist (don't know what I said about it before).<br /><br />Part of the "dystopia is bright, clean, and harmonious" trend of sci-fi during our imperial heyday -- before "dystopia is dark, dirty, and fractured" that came during our imperial decay.<br /><br />https://akinokure.blogspot.com/2017/10/is-dystopia-bright-lush-harmonious-or.html<br /><br />The place where the dystopian activity takes place is an "institute" -- they don't do "institutes" anymore. They have to have WASP-y names, too -- it's "the Jefferson Institute," not "the Di Cipriani Institute" or "the Horowitz Institute".<br /><br />Last major example of an "institute" in sci-fi that comes to mind is the Carrington Institute, from the N64 game Perfect Dark, 2000 (one of the few good games for that console).<br /><br />There's a Daystrom Institute in Star Trek: TNG from the '90s, which is not shown, but referred to.<br /><br />In the Incredible Hulk TV show from the late '70s / early '80s, the pilot takes place where David Banner is working -- at the Culver Institute.<br /><br />The trope of the institute is a private, not governmental organization, perhaps for-profit but perhaps not -- it's a kind of futuristic utopian research foundation (another older word for it -- e.g., "the Carnegie Foundation"). With an applied approach, not purely theoretical, aimed at improving or even perfecting mankind, the environment, and society or civilization as a whole. <br /><br />It's not too close to the science itself -- that would be a "laboratory" like Bell Labs, Los Alamos Labs, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, etc. Or how a narrowly scientific organization for astronomy is called an "observatory" like Lowell Observatory.<br /><br />There's some higher philosophical, sociological, utopian planning involved, for which the narrow research science is merely a means. There's a council of elders or guardians in charge of an institute, not a bunch of nerds and experts like at a laboratory or observatory.<br /><br />E.g., when Banner is researching at the Culver Institute, he's trying to uncover what gives people superhuman strength in times of crisis -- in order to apply that, and improve / perfect the human condition, since wouldn't it be great if we could all call on superhuman strength when times get tough?<br /><br />The dystopian side comes from what can go wrong with such utopian planning -- like the researcher experiments on himself, and gets cursed with the Hulk condition, which can be used for good, but may also lead to disaster, so the bearer of the curse makes it his goal of the story to remove the curse.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-31340106828768565042024-03-16T19:55:55.327-04:002024-03-16T19:55:55.327-04:00I recently saw the film Coma (from the 70s), you m...I recently saw the film Coma (from the 70s), you mentioned it awhile back, but I forget where. Really enjoyed it too, they did everything much better back then. It might be of interest to Mumei given her conspiratorial streak. It features a woman who's definitely more on the cerebral/paranoid side and a conspiracy cover-up & investigation. I think they did a good job by keeping the setting more domestic and close-knit and by making the motivation more personal, given the protag is a woman rather than a man (albeit an unusual kind of woman). <br /><br />Maybe you could do a series on 70s-80s movies or do a broad overview of them? Or repost old posts with recs? With IRL things related to movies dead, it's hard to find niche hits the way you might have at physical stores. And the Internet/Google is useless at finding movies, it's way too censored to show anything cool. <br /><br />Anyways, I don't mean to backseat, thanks for the posts and great stuff on this blog. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com