Jag vill tillägga en sak (som du kanske täcker senare i tråden, men jag har inte kommit dit än):
BeMyEyes, en app som gör att seende via telefonen/kameran kan hjälpa en synskadad med enkla vardagssaker som navigation eller hitta rätt produkt på en hylla.
www.bemyeyes.com
Ayn Rand reviews children's movies
“Mary Poppins”
A woman takes a job with a wealthy family without asking for money in exchange for her services. An absurd premise. Later, her employer leaves a lucrative career in banking in order to play a children’s game. —No stars.
Brilliant by @newyorker.com
Dansbandshögern är det roligaste jag hört den här veckan.
Det är något vackert med samhällskritik i form av den poesi/kulturform som är dansbandsmusik.
This is how we get entities stronger than nation states. This is what dystopian sci-fi has warned about.
The US may pat themselves on the back and say "the largest two of these are American", but that fails to realize that we're Dr. Frankenstein and capitalism is the monster we brought to life.
De ger prenumerantrabatt och gör reklam för den.
Bara en passus, igår såg jag att ETC har samarbete med Östgötateatern en NATO-kritisk pjäs regisserad av en Putin-vän som skrivit detta bl.a.: www.svensk-ryska.se/2024/05/vad-...
Otroligt osmakligt, och hade jag haft kvar min prenumeration så hade den rykt nu.
A problem that should make Americans panic is that oligarch owned media is complicit in the takeover:
In a live interview on CNN, Temu Goebbels claims that Badgolf Shitler has "plenary authority" (absolute power).
CNNs upload to Youtube of this interview has the quote and glitch edited out.
These stories about US Gestapo (aka "ICE") are incredibly depressing reading. Most of this isn't covered by international news, and if it were the US would look like what it is: a police state under a fascist government.
www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/...
Om jag stötte på en knapp i skogen som bara hade den skylten så hade jag nog tryckt på den bara för att se vad som händer.
Okej, den skulle gärna få säga "You'll probably survive this" om jag är på gott humör.
Pop culture is more of a meta-medium than a genre, and has its Beethovens and Da Vincis in the shape of creators like Lana and lillywachowski.bsky.social, Mike White, Mike Schur.
Thank you for reading my impromptu TED-rant.
The Wachowskis are not one hit wonders either. "V For Vendetta" and "Sense8" are also their gifts to humankind, and both with both aesthetic and essence.
One thing I love about Sense8 is that it doesn't assume technology as proxy for progress. It's a story of evolution of consciousness.
In that way, The Matrix is very similar to The Good Place (which I would also classify as techno-shamanism). The latter makes moral ethics accessible in a 25 minute sci-fi comedy/drama format.
The Matrix is a work of art with both aesthetic and purpose.
It gives us tips on how to self-actualize, my favorite being when the Oracle points to the sign saying "temet nosce" in response to Neo not knowing if he's the one.
It opens ways to think about questions only you yourself can answer.
Making of The Matrix required an army of artists, in addition to Lana and lillywachowski.bsky.social artistry.
Example: "Bullet time", where the camera pans around the character while in slow motion, was created for this movie. It is a moment of movie making history.
Side note: sadly, the term has been misappropriated by those that failed to look beyond the surface of The Matrix, and is then used as "redpilled" - this indicates having it forced upon you.
Your mind, your choice.
You don't even have to seen the movie for it to exist in your subconscious.
One of the most popular colloquialisms for seeing the true-true, or waking up to reality is "taking the red pill". The scene where Neo chooses is iconic. It's about setting out on the path to self-actualization.
And here's where I come to my main argument why pop culture has our geniuses equal those of yore:
Consider the sheer influence of The Matrix. A 90s movie that still reverberates strongly in the collective subconscious.
Its relevance is so strong because we haven't gotten the message in 26 years.
I also think there is such a thing as shamanistic storytelling. This is what Alan Watts did successfully. That's when you tell stories in order to unlock doors, to hint at options, to guide people on whatever path they might be.
When it entertains, storytelling is wielding influence over minds.
The difference between them is that while art can be accidental, storytelling is not. It always has a purpose: to entertain, to educate, to warn, to inspire …
Well performed it always moves, and if it's masterful it lingers. It lingers in our minds, and in the collective subconscious.
I'm not saying that all pop culture is art, far from it, I am saying that pop culture has contemporary Beethovens in people like Mike White. Conducting a large team to bring a vision of a masterpiece that moves with both subtlety and drama, that is art. (And in White's case also leadership)
As mediums got more advanced, so did the stories and their creation. And as the world changed, so did the stories in a way that isn't backwards compatible.
You can explain the Epic of Gilgamesh to a contemporary person, but it's hard to explain The Office to an ancient Sumerian.
Side note: This collaborative work of art took longer than our contemporary civilization including Ancient Egypt has existed.
Art, if only beauty for the sake of it, seems to be part not only sapience but consciousness. Just look at peacocks, the club winged manakin, or puffer fish.
A cave with sand-colored stone covered with hand shapes outlined by paint in hues of red and brown. A few hands are inverted, where the hand is colored and surrounded by a light halo. This is Cuevas de las Manos in Argentina, a cave where humans have created this work of art between 7300 BCE and 700 CE - a period of 8000 years.
At the very base of it, art is supposed to make us feel something. In most forms, it's also storytelling.
Handprints in a cave added over almost 8000 years, say "all of us were here".
In a wider interpretation of finer arts, pop culture is pulp fiction, all of it - with the few exceptions that confirm the rule, like Warhol.
There's an implicit hierarchy in the wider interpretation, meaning that some artists are more than others just because of the medium they create in.
Short context: I have thought about this for years since I'm writing a sci-fi series that starts out in a contemporary setting. The alien studying humanity utilizes pop culture to teach her species human communication and idiosyncrasies.
I didn't know what to use Bluesky for, but now it came to me: this is where I'll post my occasional philosophical rants about #popculture. Like why it is existential in nature. And why "finer arts" is elitist if used in another way than as a reference to "old arts".
Den enda rimliga reaktionen på denna diskussion www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifne...
Ja, det är nog lite väl dramatiskt med utrotning. Jag är bara uppgiven av alla rapporter kring klimatförändringarna som innehåller variationer på ”snabbare än förväntat”.
Mänskligheten klarar inte marshmallow-testet 🫠
Eftersom vi är på väg mot 3°C uppvärmning 2050 om vi inte tripplar den insats vi gjort de senaste 30 åren, så tror jag att det kommer vara en färgkombination som bläckfiskar använder för att berätta om de dumma tvåbeningarna som utrotade sig själva.
Källa: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Jag med. Det är dessutom apokalyps-säkrad mjölk, eftersom kackerlackor är längre ner på kanariefågel-i-gruvan-skalan för jordens livskraftighet än människor. Så länge människor finns, finns också kackerlackor.
Jag undrar hur biomassan av kackerlackor för en liter mjölk står sig mot en mjölkko.