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Forgotten Almosts/Five Feet
When the opening lyrics to a record are “My fight or flight is kicking in, and the bad news for you is I’m no good at flying,” you know you are in for something powerful. I was fortunate to catch Five Feet live as part of the 2022 Bones & Arrow Fest, hosted by Dead Archer Records. Based on the strength of that performance, I hit up Bandcamp, where I picked up their most recent release, Forgotten Almosts. Billed from Manchester N.H, Five Feet are singer/guitarist Alanah Tintle, guitarist/horn player Luis Hernandez, bassist/keyboardist/backing vocals Zack Lyons & and drummer Tyler Seiders. Their sound draws from Blues, Jazz, Mainstream Pop, Latin and then some. Released May of ‘22, recorded at Black Lodge Audio and self-described by the band, “Forgotten Almosts is a collection of songs about being haunted by everything other than ghosts.”
Forgotten Almosts is an ep of sorts, as 3 of the songs had been previously released. Although, this writer suspects these songs were meant to go together on some level. The six songs, clocking in at 19:50, are sequenced perfectly to form a complete listening experience. For friends & longtime fans, though, this should be no surprise, as Five Feet have been around for a while. Tintlel & Seiders are credited on their first Bandcamp offering (NoDiving) dating back Nov ‘18. It should also be noted that these folks are skilled as this is a well-executed project, from the recording & production right down to the artwork. These songs ring personal, connected & with a certain conviction.
“Avian Law” leads off the record with a dreamy sounding, beautifully delivered vocal from lead singer Tintle. Her voice intertwines wonderfully with Hernandez’ equally dreamy guitar tone.
The second tune is “Spirit Box.” Per Tintle, this is a song she wrote: “after having a conversation with George Barber about ghosts and whether they exist.” The dynamics of the percussion, notably the cymbals, are tastefully dropped by TylerSeiders.
Next is “California Spiderkiss,” in which bassist Lyons duets, along with Tintle. You get an earnest back and forth that brings the listener into the convoluted fray, only for the subjects to proclaim, “I’d be happier if you never kissed me.” All this is delivered on top of a hypnotizing horn riff and a guitar tone that the Edge would be proud of.
The instrumental “Splinter” serves as a segue into “You’re It.” This track finds Lyons in a vocal harmony position and equally effective. This is about as heavy as Five Feet get as the foursome rock, and I use that term loosely, some bass, drum, power chord magic. Closing the record is the sweet sounds of “Look Both Ways.” While lyrically suggestive, the song itself has the vibe of a lullaby. Hernandez’s guitar and Tintle’s voice are the perfect way to close out the record & set you adrift.
Five Feet have a pretty active social media presence and refer to their fans as pals. This struck an extremely pleasant chord with this writer as my Dad used to call us kids. Something that my siblings and I still do to this day. When scrolling their socials, among the band photos & the lyrics, one can’t help but notice that Five Feet is an extremely social and politically conscious outfit. You will find links to support causes such as the protection of basic human rights for the most vulnerable, reproductive freedom & the ongoing awareness of the LGBTQIA2S+community. Five Feet are a breath of fresh air in this day &age as they are a band of principals. Recently, they chose to cut ties with one of their favorite venues after it was discovered that said venue had employed a convicted sex offender. Fear not though, Five Feet still have plenty of places to play in the state of NewHampshire, all of New England & beyond.
Keep up with Five Feet via their website, check out some of their pals over at Dear Archer Records & see a plethora of acts, both local & national, at the Stone Church.
Ron Nizi
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Nihilism in the 21st Century
When it comes to plunging into the abyss of existential dread and nihilism, three books stand out in the weird horror genre: David Peak’s The Spectacle of the Void, Thomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, and Eugene Thacker’s In the Dust of This Planet. These works provide distinct and valuable perspectives on the theme, rendering them worthy of attention.
The Spectacle of the Void is a concise but potent read that delves into the heart of human anxiety and despair. Peak’s vivid imagery and stark prose produce an immediate and enduring sense of unease, delivering a haunting and unforgettable experience.
Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race is a dense philosophical treatise that argues that human existence is inherently meaningless and a blunder. Although this may sound disheartening, Ligotti’s writing is intricate and challenging, drawing on numerous philosophical, literary, and psychological sources. For those willing to invest the effort, it is an exceedingly rewarding experience.
Thacker’s In the Dust of This Planet takes a more poetic approach to the subject matter, drawing inspiration from the works of Nietzsche and Heidegger. It provides a more accessible entry point into the theme than Ligotti’s dense philosophical musings. Thacker’s writing is lyrical and evocative, creating a haunting and beautiful atmosphere.
These books offer a one-of-a-kind and valuable perspective on the nature of existence and the human condition. They explore the theme of existential dread from various angles, making them indispensable reads for anyone interested in exploring these ideas.
The themes explored in these books are relevant to humanity’s challenges in the 21st century.
As we confront the devastating impacts of climate change, we are faced with the reality of our mortality and the frailty of our existence. The existential dread and nihilism explored in these books can assist us in coming to terms with our place in the world and the limits of our power. Thacker’s In the Dust of This Planet underscores the vulnerability of our existence in the face of cosmic indifference and the potential for environmental collapse. This perspective helps us comprehend the urgency of addressing climate change.
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is a tragic illustration of the horrors of war and its impact on human life. Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race challenges the very notion of the value of human life, including the rationale for engaging in war and violence. His arguments can help us grasp the futility of conflict and the importance of pursuing peace. These books can help us understand the senselessness of violence and the existential despair that it can cause.
The decay of infrastructure worldwide is a pressing issue affecting millions of people’s safety and well-being. These books can assist us in comprehending the larger existential implications of these problems and the toll they take on the human spirit. Peak’s The Spectacle of the Void examines the despair that can arise when confronted with the decay and collapse of the structures and systems we rely on. His writing can help us empathize with those affected by crumbling infrastructure and understand the importance of investing in the future.
The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few is a growing problem worldwide. These books can help us understand this trend’s more significant existential implications and impact on the human spirit. Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race explores the effects of power and wealth on the human psyche and the existential dread that can arise when we feel powerless in the face of such concentrations of power. His writing can help us understand the importance of maintaining democracy and resisting the rise of fascism.
These books offer a valuable perspective on the nature of existence and the human condition. They can help us come to terms with the challenges we face and understand the limits of our power, making them essential reading for anyone interested in exploring these ideas.
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Termination Shock vs. The Ministry for the Future: A Duel of Cli-Fi Novels
Neal Stephenson’s fast-paced thriller vs. Kim Stanley Robinson’s introspective political novel – both explore the complexities of climate change and the human response.
Cli-fi, the genre of climate fiction, is the new wild frontier of science fiction. The world is heating up, and cli-fi is a way to explore the various ways that climate change is affecting our planet, society, and individual lives. It’s not just about melting glaciers and rising sea levels; cli-fi delves into the complex issues of politics, economics, and social justice that come with the changing climate.
Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock is a cli-fi novel that imagines a future where geoengineering has become a key tool in the fight against climate change. The novel follows the story of several characters, including a tech billionaire, a climate scientist, the Queen of the Netherlands and a social media influencer, as they navigate a world of high-tech solutions and global politics. The story is gripping, and Stephenson’s prose is as sharp as ever, but what sets Termination Shock apart is its exploration of the complex moral and ethical questions that come with geoengineering.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future is another cli-fi novel that imagines a future where climate change has become an existential threat to humanity. The novel is set in the near future and follows the story of Mary Murphy, the head of a UN agency tasked with tackling climate change. The novel explores a wide range of topics, including carbon pricing, direct air capture, and the politics of international cooperation. The Ministry for the Future is a more political novel than Termination Shock, but Robinson’s skill as a writer makes it just as compelling.
When it comes to comparing the two novels, the first thing to note is the difference in tone. Termination Shock is a fast-paced thriller that’s driven by action and high-stakes drama. The Ministry for the Future, on the other hand, is a more introspective novel that spends a lot of time exploring the minutiae of climate policy. That’s not to say that one is better than the other; it’s simply a matter of personal preference.
Another key difference between the two novels is their treatment of technology. In Termination Shock, technology is seen as a solution to the problems of climate change. Geoengineering, artificial intelligence, and social media all play a key role in the story, and Stephenson explores the potential benefits and drawbacks of each. In The Ministry for the Future, technology is seen as only one part of the solution. The novel is more focused on political solutions and grassroots activism, and technology is often viewed with suspicion.
Overall, both Termination Shock and The Ministry for the Future are excellent examples of cli-fi done right. They both explore the complex issues of climate change with intelligence and insight, and they both offer compelling visions of a future that we all hope to avoid. Whether you’re more interested in the high-tech solutions of Termination Shock or the political solutions of The Ministry for the Future, there’s something here for everyone.
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Legion Is Not Your Typical Superhero Story
Resistance is futile. While many decry its ascension, “superhero” has become a cinematic genre. Like any other genre, that means there is a whole lot of regurgitated garbage out there, and a few unheralded gems that manage to squeak through the stacked studio system.
There are people among us who blindly reject superhero media as a whole, and their viewpoint is understandable if they’ve only seen mindless algorithmic fodder like Wonder Woman 1984 or Tom Jane’s Popeye-ish take on The Punisher. Most assuredly, no one can say that all superhero movies and TV shows are the same after they have seen Legion.
Legion is set in the X-Men universe, so some basic familiarity with their mythology does give the whole thing more context, but it is far from necessary to enjoy this show on its own merits. Created by Noah Hawley of Fargo and soon-to-be Alien fame (a prequel series expected at some point in 2023), it is like nothing else. With its psychedelic imagery, dense technological rigamarole, warped time-play, interesting characters, epic musical sequences, and dramatic playfulness, Legion is a trip that keeps getting trippier.
Before I continue, the following article does discuss certain characters and plot points that do get ahead of the game somewhat. I have attempted to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I highly recommend watching the show for yourself now, if you haven’t already. It’s good fun to get sucked into this world, try to guess where it’s going to go, and be fooled, to get the complete emotional experience. Maybe even watch some, then come back to read some more if you get lost.
Plus, much like a British series, it’s entire three season run only amounts to 27 episodes. You can knock it out in a few good binge sessions if you really go down the rabbit hole.
Given the series’ title, Legion centers on a relatively minor character from Marvel lore, but one of unparalleled power that could bring about the end of the universe as we know it. He actually did so in the comics, inadvertently bringing about the Age of Apocalypse during a misguided attempt to alter the past for the better, so the precedent exists on paper.
The show is about David Haller, played by Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame. In the comics, Haller has multiple personalities, each of whom with their own name and distinct mutant ability. In the series, Haller is initially diagnosed as schizophrenic, and the story begins with him receiving treatment in a mental hospital.
Mental health has been a recurring theme in superhero media. Consider the PTSD of soldiers explored in Netflix’s The Punisher or the substance abuse and sexual trauma in Jessica Jones. More recently, the MCU canon series Moon Knight introduced a hero who suffers a similar vexation as David Haller, a heroic case of dissociative identity disorder with cosmic consequences. Throughout Legion, most of the characters go through some form of therapy, repeatedly being exposed to their greatest fears and re-examining their worst mistakes.
The series is primarily viewed from Haller’s perspective, and he is an unreliable narrator. In episode recaps, he even says things like “ostensibly” and “evidently on Legion.” As such, the viewer is never completely sure what the ultimate truth is within the context of the show. In the fourth episode, Sydney “Syd” Barrett states that her mission is to decipher what is real, and it is never confirmed if that mission is truly completed. Even Haller’s own memories seem to fight against him, but everyone is the hero of their own story.
The writing is bold and imaginative, pairing the acerbic wit of *Guardians of the Galaxy *with the retro-futuristic mad scientist bureaucratic nerd porn of Fringe. Think Days of Future Past on acid. The effects enhance this untethered delirium. The producers mixed practical, real-world effects and tastefully employed CG to ground the absurdity for the actors and the audience alike. Utilizing a kind of ominous stop motion animation like the weeping angels from Doctor Who to stage their powers, the ominous presence in season three is a bunch of goggled weirdos that look like Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine. The tangibility and tension makes for far more compelling drama than is capable from the glossy gummy-bear zombies from I Am Legend or the giant CG drone battle from Iron Man 2.
When Legion begins, most viewers would expect the standard duality of good versus evil. This is implied by the war that Melanie Bird believes she is losing, and the dark government agency that seeks to either control or destroy David as well as anyone remotely like him. As the series progresses, it becomes apparent that David himself is more committed to this duality than his perceived enemies, but if you seek vengeance, you dig two graves.
In the first season, Oliver Bird opens the fourth chapter with a monologue that concludes, “Violence… is ignorance.” In the same episode, memory mutant Ptonomy Wallace quotes Sun Tzu, saying “Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” Given this is a “superhero” series, these quotes seem mildly absurd at the time, but they appear to be the ultimate point of the show, to question the necessity and nature of violence.
Granted, the comparably lengthy second season, produced during the peak of Trump’s sociopathic presidency, primarily examines the development of mass psychosis care of Jon Hamm’s sinister guiding narration. By the time the series hits season three, the anti-violence lesson becomes more nuanced. Melanie herself, happily trapped in the astral plane with Oliver, teaches the youthful disembodied consciousness of Sydney Barrett the idea that, “It’s not us or them; it’s us and them.”
The attempt to villainize heroes and empathize with enemies was a core theme to Grant Morrison’s seminal comic series The Invisibles. The personal evolution of a major character revolves around a random background henchman who gets casually shot as the heroes escape from an evil organization’s lair. Morrison wrote about how that hench came to be the flamed-out jarhead that he was, how he took the job to help his struggling family, and how that decision led to his death. Might does not always make right, but an eye for an eye makes everyone blind.
Of course, there is an obvious physical element to Legion. The mutant Kerry Loudermilk is motivated almost entirely by action, and she gets her fair share of it. Performed by Amber Midthunder (Roswell: New Mexico), Kerry is a young indigenous warrior woman who shares a body with Cary Loudermilk, an old scientific white guy like the Professor from Gillian’s Island with a shade of Walter Bishop from Fringe.
Cary is played by Bill Irwin, famously known as serial killer “Nate” Haskell during the Lawrence Fishbourne years on the original CSI.* *Kerry and Cary can separate into two different people at will, and Kerry doesn’t age when she exists outside of Cary. They balance each other in so many ways.
Generally, when characters go on murderous rampages, its depicted and reflected upon as heinous, even if there is singing and dancing involved. Refreshingly, Legion tends to escalate to a series of dance routines, musical numbers, and measured discussions rather than epic yet forgettable mob fight scenes. Though many are framed humorously, they are not frivolous.
So many stories in the superhero genre climax with a bunch of masked thugs or possessed people or some other faceless mob getting stabbed, shot and/or kicked off ledges until the hero finally gets to the big baddie, then typically leaves them disabled or dead. Beautifully visualized and performed by the cast, the musical numbers are as integral to furthering the plot of Legion in ways that have rarely been achieved since the famed musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Once More, with Feeling.” They create moments to allow characters to express their truths without breaking the fourth wall.
Syd and David lead a Bollywood routine in the first episode set to a Serge Gainsbourg track, which may represent their most innocent and joyous time together. The Shadow King and David turn The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” into a synth-laden duet at the denouement of season two, seemingly indicating their inherent similarities, and in the third season, David sings an emotionally resonant take on Pink Floyd’s “Mother” with his mother that may be their only positive interaction, albeit only suggested.
The music is another way in which the era of the show is obscured. The series is vaguely set in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s… Or the ‘80s and ‘90s… Or in the present day. Hawley actually wrote the show thinking it was now, but it’s also primarily written through David’s perspective, and his memories are a blend of nostalgia, blue vapor, and darker influences.
The fashion, music, and design aesthetic contain clear references to the dubiously-titled Summer of Love era, like how Syd Barrett is named after the famed ‘60s acid casualty from Pink Floyd. Yet, Syd sings the intro to Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere” at the beginning of the second episode, which came out in 1985. “She’s A Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones plays when David befriends Syd in a mental hospital, but then somehow a little taste of Jane’s Addiction appears in a flashback in the same episode. Oliver Bird bought Summerland as a horse farm in the ‘40s, yet Ptonomy’s mother sang “99 Luft Balloons” when he was a child, which wasn’t out until ‘83.
In the third season, Switch’s search for David amidst a kaleidoscopic maze of rolling racks full of dope threads essentially leads to music video for “Something for Your M.I.N.D.” by Superorganism, featuring the Domino-signed indie-pop band itself performing the mind-blorging track from their 2018 self-titled album. Perhaps time was inherently broken, not only David’s memories? In any case, it makes for an incredibly far out soundtrack.
The casting throughout the series is spot-on as well. Hawley poached a few actors from his long-running dark comedy anthology series Fargo. Jean Smart and Rachel Keller were both on season 2 and Hamish Linklater was in season 3.
First seen onscreen in Groove, a 2000 renegade rave flick featuring John Digweed and some of the worst drug-acting ever filmed, Hamish Linklater has a recurring role on Legion as Clark Debussy. He is an interrogator for the secretive government task force Division 3, which seeks out and assesses mutant threats.
A regular on Designing Women for five seasons, Jean Smart plays Melanie Bird, who we meet as the head of a revolutionary group at Summerland, which helps and protects mutants such as Sydney Barrett, performed by Rachel Keller. Syd has a Rogue-like touch-based ability to swap bodies, and therefore briefly assume their powers. Jeremie Harris, who plays memory mutant Ptonomy Wallace, would go on to appear in season 4 of Fargo after Legion completed its run.
Fresh from playing the Sultan in the live-action Aladdin film, Navid Negahban was poured into the role of Amahl Farouk. Joining the cast in season two, he is introduced as a parasitic nemesis, but one must remember that Haller hates him, and he is basically telling the story. The truth may be nearer the middle. Plus, in the second season, Farouk quotes “Two Tribes” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Frankie says relax.
Uproarious comedic actors like Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Concords, Katie Aselton from The League, and Aubrey Plaza from Parks & Recreation also add their particular flare to the dramatic production. Interestingly, a time-traveler with superlative taste in music and fashion, performed with weight by illustrator Lauren Tsai, essentially becomes the main character in its third and final season, and certainly helps to tie the whole series together.
Basically, every character on this show is insane on some level, but their deep and diverse performances humanize them, making it easy to become invested in their arcs, how much they change throughout the course of the show either physically, mentally, or both. Most of them become completely different people by the end, if they don’e disappear altogether, but no matter what does or doesn’t actually happen on this show, no one is the same after this trip.
Arthur C. Shore
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Revenge by Ellery Twining
I met Rich Freitas’ alter ego, Ellery Twining, while on vacation with the Mrs.
He was working, sorting records at Mystic Disc. I overheard him mention that, in a few hours, he was to begin tracking bass guitar. I introduced myself, and after a fairly lengthy back and forth coupled with an in-depth digging through the “punk” section, I came to find he was working on a new record, his comeback record.
Rich is a veteran, a drummer who’s been playing in bands in and around Connecticut for over 30 years. He hasn’t played on anything in years, though. After a particularly sour musical experience, he’s been on hiatus from the business (this writer suspects we’ll hear about said experience on the next record). That hiatus is over now.
Like most everyone else, Rich had some time to kill. While most folks were contemplating their futures; Rich chose to make a record about his past.
Revenge was Recorded between 20 October and 13 December 2021 and released January 17th, 2022. Since its release, it has enjoyed a remarkable amount of success.
The record opens with the track, “A Month of Sundays.” Here, an abrupt beginning sets up an extremely stark bass/drum/guitar groove, setting the tone of what’s to come. This is followed by the lyric, “I read my first self-help book in the third grade.”
Ellery’s delivery is part spoken word, parts singing, all heartfelt. It’s that minimalistic sound that drags you into Ellery’s world.
“Civic Duty” finds our subject in the care of Mom’s new boyfriend, Russell, while Mom is at the sidewalk hearing. Here, he sinks further into himself, unable to be heard. Culminating with his mother asking Russell, “Did you have to take these kids to the bar?” Stinging lines like this dot the whole record, taking us deep into Ellery’s psyche.
“Middle Name” is one of this writer’s faves on the record. The brushed snare and the bongos give it a Latin feel, what with the faster tempo. It culminates with the lyric, “it’s a good time to get a prosthetic limb, you know, during the war.” While the line is gut-wrenching, this writer finds himself laughing. Thanks to Ellery’s, at times, deadpan delivery.
There’s enough buzz around this record that Rich even released a video for the track “Weatherfall.” Writer and director Michelle Gemma caringly weaves video, photos, and music to highlight the lyrics to the song. Which, in this writer’s opinion, is what Revenge is all about.
Lyrically, this record is personal. It shows Rich digging deep into his past, the child of a broken family. His delivery and phrasing sit beautifully on top of the music. Produced by Eric Lichter and engineered by Guido Falivene, the sonics sound fantastic and harness the vibe that is Ellery Twining.
Ron Nizi
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Mazatl: A Cut Above
I’m fascinated by woodcuts and linocuts. It’s an art form that effectively gets to the essence of what the artist wants to communicate. Furthermore, I’m compelled to get away from designing on a computer and working with my hands. There’s something magical about getting lost in the act of creation while simultaneously being very aware of what you’re creating.
One of the artists I follow on Instagram is Mazatl, who explores political, social, and environmental justice in his work. His artwork is stark, compelling, and instantly recognizable. He’s been featured in such publications as Juxtapoz and Vice.
I asked Mazatl about his artwork and what advice he’d offer to someone like myself interested in doing woodcuts and linocuts of their own.
I had a teenage interest in tattoos and graffiti, but wasn’t so invested in drawing. It wasn’t until I got involved with the punk rock scene in my town that I started doing zines and messing around with graphics and drawing. It gave me this foundation of doing something creative, and it was immediately being used.
Nikolai: How has activism has informed your artwork?
Mazatl: I think the influence goes beyond the aesthetic, and it has informed my ethics and the way I go about doing what I do. A lot of DIY punk graphics, that black and white, stripped-down sort of texture, to record covers and flyers and scenes. A lot of it has to do with what was available to reproduce your images. You know, it would be a zero-sum machine or any DIY form of printmaking, like silkscreening and woodcuts. So I think it just kind of translates well back and forth, you know, doing woodcuts for it or, or wanting to do a flyer, and then printing it that way. Mainly it’s the DIY ethic of it, not waiting for somebody to come and tell you how to do it or show you. Just experimenting with it, similar to punk rock, in terms of not being professionals and not needing institutional recognition to do it, you just do it and then learn along the way.
Nikolai: Do you come from an artistic family, or was there someone who showed you the way?
Mazatl: Hmm, I think there is an interest in art in my family. My mom painted a bit but not professionally. My dad was really into music, and he had a radio show when I was growing up. I also had an uncle that painted who has passed.
I’m from a small town. There wasn’t a lot of museums or exposure to art. When we would leave town, we would go to museums. If we went to Mexico City or anywhere else, we would spend time looking at art.
I think having those influences helped and having books and that exposure in my diet. There was that sensibility at home.
Since I was a kid, I connected with drawing and art-making. We took some art classes when we were little. I drew a lot as I was growing up. As a teenager, I just kind of stopped.
I had a teenage interest in tattoos and graffiti, but wasn’t so invested in drawing. It wasn’t until I got involved with the punk rock scene in my town that I started doing zines and messing around with graphics and drawing. It gave me this foundation of doing something creative, and it was immediately being used.
I thought, how do I have my work seen? If you create something that will need wide distribution, and if nobody wants to distribute it for you, you just have to take on its distribution yourself.
Nikolai: I discovered you through Instagram(https://www.instagram.com/_mazatli_/ “Instagram: Mazatl”), and then I read articles on you that appeared in Juxtapoz(www.juxtapoz.com/news/stre… “Juxtapoz: Mazatl”) and Vice(www.vice.com/en/articl… “Vice: Mazatl”). Did that that have an impact on you as an artist and you’re in your career?
Mazatl: I suppose it impacts the fact that art can be my primary way of supporting myself. But whether I had the recognition or not, I would still be doing the same things to a certain extent. Whether I’m traveling or doing it at home or in my studio, I have a clear idea of what I want to do. I think that to me is stronger than the recognition, the drive to do it. And I always find ways to collaborate or work with people, whether it’s a monetary exchange or not. I’m interested in supporting communities through art. That, to me, is the primary focus.
Nikolai: So this is more of a calling than a career.
Mazatl: Yeah. The career just happened. I do appreciate people writing about my work, but it doesn’t make a difference to me. I don’t ever read Juxtapoz. I don’t even know what they write about or what their take on art is. I know that it is a system that there’s importance in what they do. But I think the work that has a direct conversation with people and seeing how it impacts the communities around me. That, to me, is much more valuable.
Nikolai: Currently, you’re exploring a theme that focuses on animal skeletons.
Mazatl: I spend a lot of time thinking about the environment, our connection to the elements, and the mass extinction of animals in this environmental disaster that we are in.
Living in Mexico City for the last ten years or so made me want to talk about what is happening outside of the city because city life is so self-involved, it’s easy to forget what is going on outside the city. There are so many endangered species of animals and plants right now, so I did a project to bring these species into the urban context and see how people reacted. The whole series is about the importance of connecting to the natural world and conserving and protecting life.
Nikolai: Do you find yourself exploring different areas in your artwork?
Mazatl: Yeah. For example, that series I mentioned is something that I committed to doing a while back. I wanted to create 50 different species. Right now, during the pandemic, it’s an excellent time to work on it because I usually travel a lot during the year. I travel a lot to do murals, shows, and talks. Because we’re all confined, I stayed and worked on some new pieces. For a lot of the more recent work that I’m doing, I haven’t gotten around to printing and posting it because I made a big move. I moved my studio and home, and so a lot of the new explorations are more introspective, incorporate meditative practices and pattern experimentation—that kind of thing.
I enjoy painting murals a lot. Now that we’re spending more time inside, I’ve been working on sketches, creating smaller work in the studio, and collaborations. I did a big collaboration with a friend that did a poetry book. We did a bunch of images together, sort of paired images with his poetry.
Nikolai: One of the reasons I’m looking forward to getting back into linocuts and woodcuts is that it’s something that takes a lot of time. In contrast, the stuff I do on the computer can be time-consuming, but I don’t get into that sort of meditative headspace that I would get from drawing or sketching something. I haven’t done anything like this since I was a teenager. What is the most valuable lesson you would share with someone who is just starting work on woodcuts and linocuts?
Mazatl: The most important thing is to enjoy it, enjoy the process, and be real with yourself. It’s important to try many different things and give yourself the freedom to experiment and then decide if you like them or connect with the medium. Printmaking called me and pulled me in, but I think everybody has a different experience that links them to whatever medium they’re working with. Some people connect with it, and some people don’t, and some people like the way something looks, but then they don’t enjoy the process. If you enjoy it, you have the greatest tool beyond pre-existing skills and ideas. I think enjoying the process and then letting it guide you to make the work I believe is the most valuable thing. I believe that people find their own drive to do whatever they do and make art. I must say that just because you paint on canvas or draw and paper doesn’t instantly make it art because of the medium. I think real art serves the purpose of connection and healing for a greater community. You could be a plumber fixing pipes and make an art of it as long as you are living your creative potential, and that potential serves the purpose of healing and connecting a larger community. Finding that creative potential that connects and heals in whatever we do is the best thing that we can hope for.
Posted by Nikolai Scratch
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What Is a Person?
Thoughts are meant to be thought, not embodied. Circumstances are not a constant. Subjectivity must remain flexible as circumstances are always in flux. There is no worldview of fact, only usefulness of workings. The quantification of experience creates static data. The application of data to the subjective position creates a thing. The blindness of belief installs a thingness in the form of reasons that becomes a worldview of person. Seeing yourself as an object amongst objects is to relinquish the possibility of consciousness and any hope for free will. If there is such a thing.
There is an ever-increasing treatment of the populace through numbers, data , and statistics. The encouragement is to see yourself as a person while being treated or examined in an inhuman way. A person is a predictable and categorical entity. The agreement to dispense of yourself as a collection of categorical types, and to adopt pre-described behavior and belief, makes you easier to manage.
A soul is another entity all together. It is a human position. A development from experiential subjective understanding. The neglect of such a thing is a neglect of self development and growth towards maturity. This leads to a disconnect from physicality.
You are the expression of a biological actuality.
I use the term soul because it is loaded. It is the object of the spiritual being. It is the phantasmagorical substance of primacy. The nebulous nature of it makes it not a thing at all. As you are not a thing, it is both appropriate and suggestive.
A requirement for a “person’s” mental health is a symbiotic agreement with culture reflected back at them as a constant. All possible adversity must be included in the world picture. Anomaly of adversity creates stressors that cannot be resolved. The stress from outside the world picture causes disruptions in the continuity of the organized complex that is the “person”. These disruptions at first are the sign of a healthy body trying to break through. Eventually they become the remnant of a broken soul, chained, tortured and starving, severed from the light, destined to live as a shadow of self in decrepitude both of body and mind, eventually stripped of the power or desire to return to health.
A soul lives as a being in the world, not as a fulfillment of a pre-described abstract form. It’s practice is to deal with the limitations of it’s own experience in each moment. The practice of acceptance of adversity outside of it’s own world view is a given. The practice of acceptance,and humility in the face of the unknown and uncontrollable, is an inherent attribute of the Soul experience. It could be viewed as part of the definition of “What is a soul?”: a being that accepts the circumstances of the moment, or the being that grows from the acceptance of the circumstances of the moment.
The style of governance in the United States is increasingly moving towards a system of constant education of person compliance. You are taught to be a person. Once you adopt being a person, you are easier to manipulate as the person is synonymous with the person’s world view. A person will act in accordance with it’s beliefs and support the power structure that signals those beliefs. For authoritarian control, you merely need to educate the entire population to believe in the message of what they are. Freedom of mind is then not an option, only freedom to believe within the choices available.
Totalitarianism can be described as a prison as its people cannot leave the state without permission. This can be effected psychologically as well as within legal bounds. Nation building can be accomplished by person building.
To be a person is to live as an appearance — a superficial collection of behaviors and vision of the rightness that must be fulfilled. You pour yourself into the person by the fulfillment of expectation, either placed on you or subsequently by you.
A person can be shamed into existence. This is the act of evil. Desiring the corruption of the soul, so to exploit advantage and dominate.
The person is a prison, a shell, a container. All creative imagination is poured into this corrupted substitution for a living experience. It leaves barely a hint of the song from the source weakly singing in hopes to break free. The deep overwhelming sadness of a being in distress taught to live in fear, chained by guilt, imprisoned by no crime, waving a flag of hatred born of corruption and social disease.
A person is a collective notion. A person is a part of a group or many groups. It is a resource for power waiting to be accessed. Social human behavior is blind and the person is blind within it.
The war within the self to nurture the soul may provide some protection against the misuse of a persons propensity for misguided collective behavior.
There is a compulsion for the person to behave within the confines of norms encouraged by the group that you find affinity with. The triggers for these live deep in the fundamental level of the persons reality. This is not accessible to objective positioning at the individual level. This is at the level of belief which forms your reality.
The constant tactics of attack and herding towards the acceptable through the use of terror combined with flattery, encourage the worst aspects of humanity while the best atrophy. When anything is suffering the expectation of healthy behavior is misplaced.
In a world of corruption jockeying for money and power, through constant petty competition, with no true aim other than personal success within a social structure, coupled with a lack of clarity of what is a person, leaves society with few lucid minds.
To be healthy, suspicion of motive, vigilance against moral corruption, humility in all circumstance when engaging both with self and other, are only a few of the primary requisites for self development. The absolute neglect of this can be found in the lazy attitude of accepting social norms and aspiring to become a functioning member of a society as a person.
The society is merely an idea. The complexity of modern societies has grown well beyond observant explanation by the individual. The need for safety and belonging is a powerful drug that alters perception and teaches a dream contained within complexes of the mind. These complexes are jailers of the soul. It is relatively easy to feed these complexes in order to exploit the blind. A person is an identity complex of no definite substantive order. It is longing and need not understood, applied towards social forms and concepts. The person feels not fulfillment but temporary relief from fear. This is a herd easy to control and willing to comply.
People will commit evil over and over again as long as the species exists. The only hope lies in the war within oneself against the desperate need of the organism for security of possession. This is of course the good people. It is the good that are corrupted. For the evil there is no redemption. It is the good that must fight against the complacency in their hearts, against the rightness of their position, and the desire for the feelings that come with being on the right side. To be afraid of healthy shame that comes from the quest within, only to live shamed by the group and embody hatred, is a sin against oneself.
Consciousness is not a birthright. It is not a condition of humanity. It is hard fought for in each moment and without question is suspect in its existence at all.
The blind vision of the assumption of human consciousness and free will leave the reactionary biological organism dreaming its dream, infinitely manipulatable by others with the talent to find the strings of fear and longing and weave a web of terror with provided solution.
Freedom for the individual exists only as far as the individual is willing to limit ones own base nature and develop in conflict with its own emotional discomfort.
The American Lunch
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What is Tokusatsuploitation?
Tokusatsusploitation is a word I am coining to describe the rushing wave of tokusatsu -based media content. It comes from two ideas:
Exploitation Films
Wikipedia defines exploitation films as “a film that attempts to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content.”
Some common examples: - Blaxploitation - Spaghetti Westerns - Mockbusters
Tokusatsu
Meaning “special FX,” tokusatsu is a broad Japanese term initially referring to live-action film or television drama that makes heavy use of special effects. Two specific types of effects-based shows have become particularly associated with the word. Tokusatsu, or toku for short, refers specifically to both sentai and kaiju properties as a group.
Sentai
The word sentai means “squadron.” From the specific property Super Sentai, sentai has become a catch-all term for shows with masked transforming heroes, usually wearing full bodysuits. The masks and full-body suits allow different actors to play the same character in the problematic fighting scenes versus the acting scenes. The American show Power Rangers entirely took advantage of this by licensing the expensive fighting scenes shot for Japanese shows (mostly Super Sentai) and shooting new footage with American actors for the drama parts. Sentai transformation is called henshin, another term used to generally refer to the type of show.
Kaiju
Kaiju means monster, but it mainly refers specifically to “rubber-suit” style monsters like Godzilla, who are often portrayed as gigantic. Kaiju has become a more well-known term lately due to its adoption in English language films like Pacific Rim. Sentai is significantly associated with kaiju, as they often battle, usually with the assistance of giant robots.
Tokusatsu has been immersing audiences since the 1960s, with many successful intellectual properties (IP) generating billions in revenue. Some of the top-earning franchises are:
- Ultraman: $17 billion in merch sales between (1966-1987)
- Godzilla: > $5 billion from the first 13 movies alone
- Power Rangers: $522 Million, IP purchase by Hasbro in 2018
We are beginning to see a massive wave similar to the many reboots and spin-offs of superhero comic properties from Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Because of the great success of multiple toku IPs, and the many generations with shared exposure and experience to tokusatsu, it is now highly viable to reboot and re-release the copious tokusatsu properties already in existence. Tons of new projects based on kaiju and sentai properties have and are being greenlit, and some are even close to release. A few notable examples include:
However, because toku has staked out such a firm place in the public consciousness, it’s now possible to create new material that builds from the familiarity people already have with well-known tokusatsu properties without actually licensing an existing property and benefit from the oncoming reboot wave. Thus:
Tokusatsusploitation
In 2019, seeing a connection between augmented reality face filters and sentai henshin transformations, I assembled a team to participate in a Beyond Reality contest put on by Niantic, the creators of Pokémon Go. Over the six months of the competition, we created a new IP called Bio-Squad K that drew inspiration from many tokusatsu properties while possessing a distinct style and unique concepts. We developed a working prototype for a massively multiplayer mobile game. People could don helms (AR face filters) and form squads with their friends to battle otherworldly kaiju via AR while unraveling a mysterious plot that turns traditional tokusatsu framing upside down. The limited information we were allowed to show drew a robust and immediate organic engagement on social media.
Unfortunately, despite a universally positive response, an exciting original IP was not what Niantic wanted. They decided not to fund further production at the end of the contest. They later requested a complete design bible, which we delivered, as part of the second round of consideration for potential funding, but again declined. We weren’t given any feedback about why but I have to assume that their partnership with Hasbro (on a Transformers game) made them loath to work with a smaller tokustasu IP that might muddy the waters for a future Power Rangers game. The Unormal Games team and I continue to search for an AR platform partner who wants to help us manifest the gigantic potential of Bio-Squad K.
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The Power of Emptiness
We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. — Lao Tzu
Emptiness is rarely appreciated for what it is (or rather, what it isn’t.)
Western minds associate emptiness with feelings of loss, loneliness, and lacking, while fullness is a symbol of success, gratitude and love. No one wants to come home to empty promises, an empty nest, or an empty fridge. Eastern philosophy, however, reminds us that emptiness should be revered, not feared.
We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside the pot which makes it useful.
Emptiness, the Taoist concept of non-being, is the source of all things. Emptiness holds unlimited potential. For what other reason does an empty fridge exist, if not to be filled? Believe me when I tell you that I have nothing to offer you. And you’re going to love it.
Over the years, I have witnessed the power of emptiness working small miracles into my life. I can’t give you tangible proof that it works. (If you haven’t noticed, we’re way beyond the Socratic method here.) What I can tell you is that there are cosmic forces at work that we can’t even begin to understand. And if one of those forces could bring me new clothes and a fatter bank account, it’s worth the leap of faith as far as I’m concerned.
We work with being, but non-being is what we use.
So here’s how it works: Rather than running around trying endlessly to fill our hearts, our pockets, and our fridges, we should instead focus on creating the empty space for the things we want to attract. Drawers, rooms, and minds are purposefully left empty and ready to receive.
My new theory was born from old clothes. I noticed that every time I donated clothes, new clothes would suddenly appear. A friend would show up with a hefty bag full of hand-me-downs to sift through. Or perhaps a fancy dress from a friend’s boutique would find its way into my closet. It was all completely at random.
Or was it?
If I threw away an old chipped coffee mug, a new one would mysteriously show up in my life. If I got rid of some old books, I would be pleasantly surprised by a literary gift from a friend. It was as if I was living in a constant (and delicate) equilibrium of possessions. The more and more things I sent on their merry way, the more things would flow in to fill the shelves and drawers I had just cleared out. And the cosmic exchange of articles started getting pretty specific, too.
One morning, after tossing an old, well-loved pair of house slippers in the trash only to be handed a pair of brand new ones from my dear neighbor that very same afternoon, I started to wonder if I could intentionally move things in and out of my life in this way.
Naturally, I decided to direct my intentions towards wealth. If I applied my theory here, that would mean that rather than working harder to create wealth, I would instead create the empty space needed to hold the weath. If you want juice, get a cup, right?
I opened an empty savings account and set up a jar in the house to collect coins. Did it work? Well, I’m not a multi-thousandaire yet, but I have been able to sock away some rainy-day cash. And there’s definitely no coin shortage around here.
We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.
Many people out there are seeking to fill their hearts. We search high and low for an everlasting love to call our own. The power of emptiness can work here, as well. To seekers of love, I would say this:
First, stop searching for love out there and start making room in your heart and in your home. That could mean cutting ties with anyone who is taking up your time and energy in negative ways. Next, assess your sleeping quarters. Take inventory. Is your bedroom suitable for another person to share? Buy a bigger bed and a pillow for their head. Provide a nightstand. Leave an empty drawer in your dresser and add some empty hangers in the closet. Set an extra place at the table. Make your physical space ready to receive your new partner. Finally, create a mental image of the person you want to be there, and visualize them coming into your life. Be specific! Make a mental checklist of everything you seek in a partner and keep it fresh. And then just sit back and let the universe be your matchmaker.
Now you want to have a baby? Buy a crib. Don’t like your job? Quit your current job first. Whoa! Hang on. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here. Before you put your whole life on the curb, start with very small things. For instance, recently, I took down some old photos from my wall. The very next day, I won a free portrait sitting from a professional photography studio. The space I created is now filled with my family, looking our best.
And then, like most things, the power of emptiness can work against us, too. Think of people whose lives are going in the wrong direction. Loss after loss. Perhaps each time they lose a partner, a job, or a gamble, whatever comes to fill that space is something worse than what they had before! The flow is now moving in the wrong direction.
So let’s pause to include one important step for the power of emptiness to work to our benefit; we first need to set an intention to attract quality rather than quantity. Intention makes all the difference in determining whether your cup runneth over or your toilet overfloweth. We need to keep this intention intact as we selectively create empty spaces. We need to trust that the emptiness will attract something better than we had before.
Become totally empty. Quiet the restlessness of the mind. Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness.
Remember that the power of emptiness is also what makes meditation so beneficial. Our minds are filled with clutter and chaos. Future plans and past regrets take up way more of our mental storage than they should. Emptying the mind means making room for endless possibilities of growth and insight. We are so much more powerful than we know. We just need to stop knowing so much.
There’s one more thing I’d like to say about the power of emptiness, but I’m not going to.
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Bernadette Bridges
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Synchro Anarchy: Voivod steps Forward by Reaching Back
While chatting online recently, someone posted, “Have they ever made a bad record?”. I replied, “It’s not that the Chewy records are bad, it’s just that the Piggy records are much, much better.”
That was the case in this writer’s opinion until now. The band I’m speaking of is Voivod, the Chewy and Piggy are Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain and Denis “Piggy” D’Amour, respectively, and the “until now” is about their 15th studio recording, Synchro Anarchy. Co-produced (along with the band) by Francis Perron, who has been working with the band since the Post Society EP, Voivod takes a step forward by reaching back. This batch of new songs has a familiar feel, much like when my Mom would try a new recipe. It was still Mom’s meatloaf, but different.
Like most every band/musician, Voivod had to pivot regarding their writing and recording process due to COVID. They could not work the songs out via lengthy jamming and had to record in a timelier fashion than they were used to. This had something to do with the songs and the record’s overall vibe. Also, like many other musicians, Voivod did live web streams during the lockdown, these included performances of 1988’s Dimension Hatross and 1989’s Nothingface in their entirety, which may have been by design. All this has cemented this writer’s 100% comfort level of guitarist Dan Mongrain, who replaced Denis D’Amour after D’Amour’s death from colon cancer in August of ’05. Mongrain beautifully captures the essence of D’Amour’s Voivod but with his twist. His riffing and tone sit naturally in between drummer, and graphic artist who designed all of Voivod’s record covers, Michel “Away” Langevin and longtime vocalist Denis “Snake” Bélanger.
Voivod is a challenging band to categorize. While they most often fall into the Thrash category, one can’t deny their Punk background. All it takes is a look at most of the band photos, where a Public Image Ltd, Plasmatics, or Motörhead shirt is being sported by one or more of the band members. Add in the fact that their arrangements often lean Prog Rock. This band could be filed in numerous places in the record store. This writer could see them opening for King Crimson, Metallica, or, when they were active, fellow Canadians Rush, among others. To some, this might be confusing. To fans, it’s Voivod.
Naturally, the band delivers an opening track that slays. “Paranormalium,” with the off-time signatures pitting Chewy’s guitar vs. Dominic “Rocky” Laroch bass, delivers the perfect amuse-bouche for what’s to come. “Planet Eaters” may be the most commercial track on the record, with Snake providing the timely, socially conscious lyric “We’re all planet eaters.” The highlight of the album, for this writer, is the psychedelic thrash banger “Mind Clock.” Timing in at 6:44, it’s the longest song on the record. It starts in a psychedelic vibe situation and morphs into the signature Voivod groove, keying in on Away’s tribal drum beats. Ultimately, wrapping up with Snake declaring, “My mind change!” before the band sends the listener off into psych dreamland.
This writer identifies so much with this most recent record because my first “new” Voivod record was Dimension Hatross. I remember my friend Eric playing me in 1987’s Killing Technology, which resonated. It had elements of the MTV heavy metal that I was comfortable with and tapped into the punk vibe that I had recently discovered. So, when Dimension Hatross was released not too long after, I bought it and played it again and again and again. With Synchro Anarchy, the sound brings me back to a young 20 something in Boston, the retail hangouts Jacks Joke Shop, Stairway to Heaven, and The Channel nightclub, where I first saw Voivod live. While the COVID situation affected everyone differently, it affected everyone similarly. That, being forced to change. Voivod is no different and Synchro Anarchy is the result. For that, this writer’s world is a better place.
Checkout https://www.voivod.com/en/home for band info and tour dates.
Ron Nizi
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Cheering On Volkssturm Behavior
A Serbian friend who is a university student asks me if I saw a video of a young Ukrainian woman throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Russian tank but lighting herself on fire in the process. I told him that avoid videos like that. It’s just morbid war porn. One can pay attention to a war without delving into war porn. I mentioned to him that I had seen a video of civilians in Kiev making Molotovs and that I imagined that would eventually happen to someone. The news story showing this seemed to be making it out that these were people engaging in a heroic act, but they seemed so clueless. There was a young woman, a university student with blue hair. I just couldn’t imagine that she had a clue as to what could go down on her city. But the American news story portrayed all this as heroism. I took it quite differently. To me, it was Volkssturm behavior. In the film Downfall, the Volkssturm is shown as older and younger citizens being needlessly sacrificed for a lost cause. I thought we were supposed to watch that and think that it’s wrong of a nation to sacrifice people when there is no potential for victory.
The Finns developed the Molotov cocktail during the Winter War. They had a functioning military, but they lacked anti-tank weapons. The Molotov was a simple weapon meant to make up for this deficiency. It wasn’t meant as a last ditch method. It wasn’t handed out to women and children or untrained young men who were instructed to charge Russian guns and armor.
The war in Ukraine has repeatedly reminded me of how our society learns not rules but examples. The Salem witch trials are about how crazy people used to be, not a message about the dangers of moral-panics, and America excels at moral-panics like no other developed nation. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is a message about how crazy totalitarianism could be, not about how modern government can manipulate the citizenry. Internment of Japanese in 1942, well, we’re all sorry about that, terrible racists the people of the day were back then… but you know, blocking Russian athletes from the Special Olympics, that’s fine. This is coming from a citizenry whose government invaded two countries in the past twenty years, helped destroy Libya and sent arms to Islamic radicals in Syria, and quietly assists the Saudi starvation blockade of Yemen.
An Onion headline could read “Iraq War Veterans Very Confused by all This Moral Outrage.”
Now, going back to the Molotovs: Were the Finns engaging in Volkssturm behavior? I don’t think one could categorize it that way. Were the Rus doing the same in 1941 and 1942? I suppose you could say they were, but the USSR wasn’t without a path to victory, and they knew this at the time. But no sane person could argue, in 1945, that the hurling of old German men and women with cheap rocket launchers and antiquated rifles was going to change the tide of the war. And so, I say it is with Zelensky and his regime. It’s irresponsible, and it seems that their methods are meant more for propaganda and civic mobilization than for effective resistance. If Ukraine has a path to victory, it has nothing to do with blue-haired, blond-eyed young women throwing lit bottles of gasoline at tanks. That’s fine, but why pretend it’s something other than sacrificing individuals without and potential for real gains? And I would add that one can be pretty damn sure that the Ukrainian oligarchs who back Zelensky, that great champion of liberal democracy, aren’t making Molotov’s in their 6 car garages in the hope of turning the tide against Russia aggression.
Imagine this advertisement: The amount of time spent by Ukrainian oligarchs making Motolovs? Zero. The amount of time spent by Ukrainian oligarchs worrying about their wealth and property, of which they have relatively infinite amounts of? Far more than zero.
That general impression we have of Russians viewing life as cheap, well, I’d argue there’s something to that. I know we aren’t allowed to stereotype or hold critical views of a foreign culture… Oh wait, I have just received an official memo saying it’s OK to do this when we’re talking about Russians… But I suppose it could also be said that, as Ukrainians are cultural kin to the Russians, and they’re more than capable of having an equally callous view of individual life. But, of course, it’s different because the Ukrainians are fighting for freedom and oligarchic-democracy (the kind of democracy our Neo-Liberal and Neo-Conservative leaders truly love), for their God given right to join NATO, for their God given right to orient their oligarchs towards Western banks that will funnel their ill-gotten gains towards London and Miami.
So, let us cheer the Ukrainian Volkssturm, led as it is by Zelensky, that honorable man. Yea, they are all honorable men. The news networks that the banks and corporations own that today profit from the arming of Ukraine and hope to someday profit off the pillaging of Ukraine told us so.
Recently, we have learned that the US government has been having fun releasing fake intelligence and reporting it as if it were truth. They’ve admitted to this, saying that it’s a matter of trying to dissuade the Russians from things they might be planning to do (using chemical or biological weapons, for instance), but let’s remember the old Iraq War playbook. The government releases a damning statement that is captured in a headline, the report later turns out to be false, and a small correction possibly put up in the back pages of the Washington Post or the New York Times. Almost nobody sees the correction; everyone remembers the headlines. All the cheering on for another forever war ought to make everyone give pause. It won’t, but it ought to. We’re being told that we and the rest of the world have to sacrifice for an oligarchic democracy’s God-given right to join NATO. We’re being told that we’ll turn Ukraine into Afghanistan for the sake of global democracy and to preserve our way of life. In this struggle, our values and our capacity for reason are actually set aside rather than enhanced.
A final thought: Washington has blocked Russia’s ability to repay its debts. Before the pandemic, the Russian debt to GDP ratio was roughly 15%. At that time, they held enough gold, or nearly enough gold, to repay their debts outright. Washington has now seized assets from Russian oligarchs, and they seem to be saying that they will use the seized assets to repay some of the Russian debt payments. I would be willing to bed that those seized assets will be transferred to American banks and institutions that own Russian debt and that foreign creditors will be left to dry. I can’t say I know this for sure, but I think that I’ve come to know my government, especially since 2001, and they rarely fail to make others pay for their foreign policy decisions and disasters. The rest of the world knows this, and even a centrist Senator doped up on American exceptionalism should be able to see that this is a state of affairs that won’t last forever. As an American, I would hate to see our currency lose its preeminent status, but should it happen, I won’t for a minute think it to be unjustified.
Post-final thought final thought: I recommend that the reader goes to YouTube and finds stories on the Donbas conflict from after 2014. These stories consistently show the situation in Ukraine to be in a moral grey zone, not the black and white that we’re now presented with by some of the same news agencies that made these earlier reports. Funny how things change when democratic governments demand we all get on board with their favorite policies.
Charlie Don’t Serf
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Robin Hatch and the Amazing Polyphonic Dream Synth
TONTO (a.k.a. The Original New Timbral Orchestra) is the world’s first and largest multitimbral polyphonic synthesizer. You may have heard it on a bunch of revolutionary albums from the ‘70s. Everyone from the Isley Brothers, Minnie Riperton, Weather Report, Devo, Quincy Jones and Billy Preston to Devo, James Taylor, Harry Nilsson and Steven Stills recognized and utilized its capabilities. Most notably, TONTO and its mad scientist creators were heavily involved in the bulk of Stevie Wonder’s so-called “classic period” albums, from Music of My Mind to Fulfillingness’ First Finale, with recorded echoes rippling on his subsequent releases.
The wood-paneled analog behemoth appears on the cover of the last album that Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson made together, titled 1980, where it looks like the cockpit of the Spaceship Funkadelic. TONTO is also practically considered its own character in Brian de Palma’s Faustian rock opera Phantom of the Paradise by the people of Winnipeg, who kept the 1947 cult Paul Williams film in theaters longer than Jaws during its original run.
Toronto-based composer Robin Hatch originally heard about TONTO from Malcolm Cecil, who co-created the frankensynth with Robert Margouleff in 1968. Seemingly by the will of the universe, Hatch hit up the 2015 NAMM Convention while touring with Our Lady Peace, and miraculously ran into Cecil at the Moog booth, as he was delivering serious Doc Brown vibes. He told her all about his creation, and gave her a Tonto’s Expanding Head Band album, the band that he and Margouleff formed to honor their then-new creation and subsequently got them into the ears of Stevie Wonder.
Unbeknownst to her, Cecil had recently sold TONTO to the National Music Centre in Calgary on the condition that it would be publicly exhibited and be made accessible to contemporary musicians. By then, most of the wiring had turned into cocaine and mouse poop, so TONTO underwent an extensive renovation at the hands of synth whisperer John Leimseider. The makeover took Leimseider about four years, and the great master passed away shortly after its completion.
Meanwhile, Hatch had been a touring pianist, guitarist and/or keyboardist with the likes of OLP, Rural Alberta Advantage, Dwayne Gretzky and Sheezer for years. She’d enjoyed a respectable amount of success, but life is hard for everyone. After being diagnosed with PTSD, health professionals recommended that she go straight edge. Heeding their warning, she quit all the drugs, and turned to the outer limits of music as a healthier way to continue expanding her mind.
While she was in Calgary on tour with Whitehorse in 2019, Hatch discovered that TONTO was being held at the city’s National Music Center. The NMC is literally synth nerd heaven. They have every kind of ARP, Buchla, Korg, EMS, Kurzweil, Linn, Moog, Sequential Circuits, Rhodes, Yamaha, E-mu, Steiner you can imagine, almost every famous or interesting synth ever made. Thankfully, the NMC maintains them and promotes their use, rather than hide them away behind glass never to be played again, so most of them are available to anyone lucky enough to record there.
Hatch began calling in all of her favors to try to get access to TONTO, eventually applying for an artist in residence program. After significant effort and Covid delays, Hatch was gifted access to the old beauty for four whole days. She would be only the second artist after electric powwow outfit The Halluci Nation (f.k.a. A Tribe Called Red) to enjoy one of Leimseider’s grandest restorations.
Digital emulators and plug-ins can create similar sounds as TONTO, but they will never be able to capture the warmth and subtle unpredictability of live wires soldered to old circuits. TONTO has its own unique personality. It’s a half-century old piece of electronic equipment. Even when new, it could go out of tune, as it did in dramatic fashion while Cecil and Margouleff recorded an episode of Midnight Special with Billy Preston in 1975, which led to the breakup of Tonto’s Expanding Head Band and Cecil buying out Margouleff’s ownership stake.
When TONTO was built, it was the cutting edge of music technology, but you can imagine how, shall we say, interestingly a 50-year-old iPod would function if it tried to merely play a music file, let alone organize a bank of voltage controlled oscillators. TONTO has a distinct flair that is impossible to truly replicate, like an acquired patina on an old car found in a barn with original paint. What may have been considered deformities when compared to contemporary factory specs eventually becomes an irreplaceable character that people covet for its own sake.
As a human being, Hatch has character too. She was blessed with absolute pitch, so she was trained as a pianist with the Royal Conservatory. While she has spent much of her professional career playing in various indie rock bands, her classical education comes through in the minimalist electronic and neo-classical sounds explored on her growing catalogue of solo albums, beginning with 2019’s Works For Solo Piano.
As one may easily deduce from the title of her fifth solo album, T.O.N.T.O. is an ode to TONTO. Stylistically, it traces a line around the earliest electronic records like the first couple albums by Wendy Carlos, but the overall vibe is a little funkier and more futuristic like vintage French library music. The cover even had fake vinyl ring wear, to complete the crate digger vibe.
To ground the feeling of the album with earthly concerns, Hatch contemplated mental trauma and its place within ourselves while composing her soundwaves as a sort of micro-dosing neural pathway refresh essential for moving beyond. That spiritual effort makes T.O.N.T.O. more than obscure music geekery or weird sound for the sake of weird sound. She embeds a subtle yet distinct layer of meaning in there, tracing back to her own journey from fog to clarity, during a time when we are all struggling with something and can relate.
Hatch wasn’t completely alone on this album, though. While the bulk of the recording was completed at the NMC, overdubs from the likes of Leland Whitty (Badbadnotgood), Eric Slick (Dr. Dog), Nick Thorburn (Islands) and Joseph Shabason helped flesh out her otherworldly vision. T.O.N.T.O. is even mastered by TONTO co-creator Robert Margouleff, but unfortunately Malcolm Cecil passed away shortly after the album was recorded.
TONTO wasn’t alone on this album either. The majestic monolith was joined by synths such as a Yamaha CS-80, Oberheim Four Voice, Linn Drum, RMI Explorer and ARP Solina. Yeah, it is that good to record at the NMC.
Contemporary in its impact but vintage in its aesthetic, T.O.N.T.O. is essential listening as much for someone looking for a new path forward as anyone who ever wanted a little more out of Bruce Haack, Bernard Fèvre or Jean-Jacques Perry. Hatch has given TONTO a tribute worthy of its impressive legacy, and its continued possibilities. This machine expands minds.
—Arthur C. Shore
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Role-playing Game Systems
It seems everyone is getting into D&D 5E lately. Even Jeff Goldblum is into it.
I have had a number of friends, acquaintances, and strangers asking lately for my input about picking up the system as a player or DM and generally asking questions about RPGs. Maybe because I have been doing a ton of playtesting and exploring other systems lately, or because I’ve been running RPGs on and off for 30 years now, I guess I have an “informed opinion.” Still, it is only that.
Much of the draw to a particular system, particularly when it comes to the most popular, comes down to sunk cost rather than the types of experience that the system is liable to produce. Familiarity and shared assumptions can be incredibly appealing elements. It takes a lot of time — reading, running, and playing — to learn a system well enough that it becomes a more intuitive process, which is where collective storytelling begins.
Many character and story-focused RPGs try to get by this by simplifying the “game” elements — Fate is in this direction, Hillfolk is another. However, the demand on the individual group becomes very high, and the handholds the system may give to structure your options or capabilities as a character can be hard to find.
So, although it may be helpful to critique a given system for its ubiquity, it might be misleading to assume that the draw to a system results from what it does.
The “system” in a role-playing game is functionally the glue between “role-playing” and “game.” There’s a gradient between games that strictly dictate your range of actions and the mechanics of the space/world it occurs in (chess, say), and partially or fully unrestricted (and potentially unruly and directionless) free play.
RPGs all fall somewhere on this spectrum, and where it falls always entails some trade-offs. Some systems strictly delineate the range of possible actions; others attempt to be more abstract, all of them try to blend “story” with “game.” I’m going to pick on D&D a little, although this isn’t a “D&D sucks play my indie game” post (although would it kill ya?). I enjoy D&D with the right group. I think it’s a little duplicitous about the experience that its systems are liable to create, and that’s what I’d like to dig into a little bit.
What’s the issue? I’ll use an example: look at how much “flavor” dictates the differences between character classes, races, and so on in 5e, and really how little the system seems interested in incentivizing the type of play the books claim to be for. (While they lend themselves to other things, as I’ll get into).
As an experiment, I took the same character concept and developed that character with different races, class options, and so on in several other campaigns. I played the character as both PCs and NPCs. I’ve done this before for various reasons but hadn’t considered changing their class, race, and overall “build” before.
It worked perfectly well, almost too well. Part of the reason for this seems to be that in the process of opening up the range of possibilities for what kind of person a goblin, orc, elf, or tiefling might be, they also reduced in advance the sort of assumptions that we can make about them. Stereotypes are generally corrosive in the real world. Still, they function as a part of the generalization we do in the process of creating a narrative that is simple enough for us to understand, remember, and repeat to one another. While stories that challenge our predefined notions of simple right and wrong are by and large my preference, there is a tension between that and providing enough pre-loaded assumptions that it means something that a character is a goblin and not an elf, aside from their combat bonuses or superficial appearance. The alternative, of course, is to create a rich and diverse inner life and system of social relations, but that goes far beyond what D&D is prepared to support as a gaming system or which most groups can bring to life.
In playing these different iterations, something else seemed increasingly obvious. It’s not that the system is so flexible that the same character can be “skinned” and spec-ed out differently and role-playing them was essentially the same; it’s that the two things — “role-play” and “game” — have no clear relationship with one another so far as the system of D&D is concerned.
The point is that the system, by and large, mostly cares about how abilities manifest in combat — and where there are variations, those are intentionally smoothed over for the sake of “balance”. There’s plenty of lore about the races and classes. Still, when you get down to what comes out in sessions and drives/limits player actions, it’s… again… mostly left in the hands of players how to connect their character and the story their in with the system that are meant to represent them, or else it’s a couple little stat perks that are even more incidental now that they can(optionally) be swapped for one another to represent “cultural” differences. I found a reskinned character concept played very differently as a goblin than an elf, but that was only because I leaned into it without any guidance or incentive from the system.
The last thing I want anyone to take from this is an argument about “Political Correctness.”
I’m 100% behind “make every Goblin gay” if that’s what you want to do. This is about something more fundamental in what the rules do and don’t do. In other words, the optional rules in Tasha’s are well and good in themselves. They don’t fix the disconnect between the system and how you role-play that character. I wonder if the “woke debate” (I feel gross even typing those words) is a smokescreen, with the cynical intent of garnering more impressions online.
At most, a major respect of a character between races or classes tweaks the specific methods they use to slice and dice or blast their opponents. How I play them, and if I “play” them at all, that’s up to me. What are his goals, motivations, and fears, and what does it have to do with their development? If this is a role-playing game for all seasons rather than a hack ’n’ slash monster hunting game, why is the primary incentive in the standard rules to kill for experience?
How does your character’s arc connect with an adventure module, any of the systems that take up the bulk of the rulebooks? Doesn’t matter. You’re only role-playing if you want to be. Either way, it’s a “skin” atop the same Swiss army knife. If you can manage to shoehorn the development of your character into a pre-fab adventure, it certainly wasn’t included in that module’s design. All you need is a couple of stock phrases and a desire to vanquish your foes.
I think this indicates an internal conflict within D&D, both in the books and in how it’s played, about what it actually is. Character and story are intended to be a core part of the “role-playing,” or so we are told, yet most of the books are filled with rules that have very little to do with meeting that end. Roleplaying is something extra, something you do, supported vaguely by skill checks (at times), but mostly handled as an adjunct that’s handwaved a bit with “creativity”. Give a Warlock an Eldritch Blast, and they’re gonna use it.
Before anyone gets out pitchforks, I should reiterate that I play and run D&D and have since the late 80s, so obviously, I’m not simply attacking it or suggesting that no one play. For those of you who play with me or in 5E campaigns I run, none of this is too much of a hindrance in situations where you’ve already accepted the “game” for what it is or are mutually beneficial willing to make adaptations. Either they know how to role-play a character and track their basic motives and character arc without re-enforcement and incentive from the system, OR they’re interested in the more regressive, almost board-gamey elements in D&D — if you’re having fun playing hack ‘n’ slash with friends, who cares?
As I’ve said before and will likely say again —D&D is a monster hunting and looting game with some role-playing “flavor” characteristics, often posing as a high fantasy character-driven role-playing game. If you let it do what it’s good at, it can be a lot of fun. You can also push it to be more than that, though at that point, I would suggest maybe looking at other systems.
This has been a significant problem for me when I’ve tried to play at Cons, with strangers at events, or online. (Especially using a modular approach like Adventure League or tables that take the system as a literal tablet of dictates to be followed, to the detriment of the story, of fun. “The dice are Gods here. We are merely their puppets.”) If your character is a cardboard cut-out anyway, the game makes its own covert demands. “We are doing a role-play. Roll 1d6.”
This also becomes an issue beyond my personal bugbears (no pun?) when it comes to thinking about public assumptions about what role-playing games are since D&D has insisted and, to some extent, won the consensus view that D&D and role-playing are synonymous.
All of this raises the question of what a game system is meant to do? The short answer I would give is that system is for subtly incentivizing certain behaviors and deprioritizing others, helping to realize a story-like dynamic by directing/restricting your character’s actions and agency within the world as much as keeping them open. That balance, and the balance of agency, is part of what defines one system from another. The objective is to help replicate an experience.
Of course, no matter how effective the system is at doing this, it always comes down to the specific group playing and running it, but when it comes to game design, that is the variable you don’t really have control over.
Given the popularity of D&D, I find this disconnect both fascinating and a little troubling, because instead of being a problem, this lack seems to be a strange sort of benefit where Wizards can reassert itself as the Ur-RPG, and leverage that disconnect between character, story, and system as a feature rather than a benefit. The issue isn’t whether dark elves or orcs are or aren’t inherently evil. It never was — it is the absurdity of taking a game premised on killing foes and taking their shit and pretending it’s something else entirely.
Of course, given Wizard’s sales numbers, they’re doing something right. And, you know, I enjoy the monster-hunting game just fine when that’s what we’ve chosen to play. But if you are still trying to use D&D to drive character-driven collective stories, there is a long list of systems you might want to look into.
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What is Blogizdat?
Blogizdat is a post-counterculture lifestyle brand spin-off of Blue Ant. Blogizdat gathers intelligence on anomalous phenomena to generate clickbait.
Blogizdat owes its lineage to the cultural criticism of Autonomedia and Semiotext(e); the exuberance of Boing Boing, MONDO 2000, and Wired; and the deconstructionism of Dangerous Minds and Supercontext.
That is what I imagine Blogizdat to be.
But in reality, Blogizdat is a group blog made up of friends and acquaintances. The shape and form of Blogizdat will emerge through our posts.
We hope you enjoy our blog.
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