🎶 Music – MUNA

We saw Muna back in February 2017. They put on an incredible show. There were 50 people max in this super small venue. The photo above shows how close we were to the band. I share this because I want you to know that we've been listening to this band for a long time. And that we are cool. And that everything you think is cool now we knew about 5 years ago. I want you to know that. I DESPERATELY WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT. Anyway, we were super excited when Muna signed to Phoebe Bridgers label (another artist that we've seen live and have been listening to a REALLY long time – like, so long) because it meant that they were going to get more support to make their music. Their new album is coming out next month and their new singles don't disappoint. 

🎶 MUNA – Home By Now

Their latest song, Home By Now, has been called "A DANCE SONG with BRUTAL LYRICS." It's very good. The art direction is also super cool.

If you are new to Muna (of course you are), it's also worth checking out some of their older stuff – a few fan favorites:

🎶 MUNA – I Know A Place
🎶 MUNA – Loudspeaker
🎶 MUNA – Winterbreak

Their first album, About U, is an instant classic. Listen to the whole thing.

Links

Outhorse your email
Disconnect from work and let the horses of Iceland reply to your emails while you are on vacation (seriously)

So, sharkcanos are a thing
A volcano full of sharks just erupted in the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA images.

Google can turn text into realistic images using AI 

Seems like Google is in a race against the open source project, DALL-E, the A.I. that draws anything at your command.

Astroforge raises $13M seed round for asteroid mining ambitions

Is this how we are finally going to gain access to element 115?

The last public payphone in NYC has been removed from Midtown

Seeing a payphone now just reminds me of the Matrix.

Outer Range

Just finished Outer Range (via Amazon Prime). Josh Brolin as a cowboy is perfect. It makes me want to move to Wyoming and work on a ranch. Not like actually *DO WORK* on the ranch, like with the animals, but on a ranch in the sense that I have my computer in a home that is located on a ranch. Nice view – lots of land – a simple life. Speak with a drawl and let my skin slowly turn to leather under the western sky. It also has made me want to buy EVEN MORE Carhartt, and denim, and also consider wearing handkerchiefs around my neck once in a while. And squint more. And be more mysterious.  

No spoilers. But this isn't just a western. It is sci-fi meets western – NEO-WESTERN!

🎶 Music

Sunflower Bean – Moments In The Sun

Sunflower Bean – In Flight

📁 JPEGS

Microsoft's Secret Obsession with Matthew Perry

Microsoft made a Windows 95 "Cyber Sitcom" starring Rachel Aniston and Matthew Perry (in character as Rachel and Chandler Bing). It's truly insane – here is how the narrator describes it:

"In section one, you'll get more than a few laughs as we present the world's first Cyber Sitcom starring two of television's hottest comedy personalities, Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry."

"They'll be taking you on an adventure in computing that takes place in the office of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Along the way, they meet a wacky bunch of propellerheads and they're introduced to the top 25 features of Windows 95. The pace is fast and funny..."

The whole this is so bad that it's actually good. It also left me wondering if there is some sort of Matthew Perry obsession happening up in Redmond, Washington,,,,, 14 years after this video premiered, Microsoft would go onto rebrand their search engine, Live Search, to.... you guessed it, "BING."

🌎 Links

AN ELEGY FOR THE IPOD – Join me in mourning by solemnly playing "1234" by Feist on your Apple Watch

Does Spotify have access to the treasure trove of untitled tracks by unnamed artists that I’ve had in my library for over a decade? Probably, but I don’t have to worry about them suddenly disappearing after a legal dispute, or losing access because I forgot my password, or paying a subscription fee to listen without commercials. I have even more gratitude for my iPod in a period when art is immediately available but blandly frictionless and more often than not tied to some form of surveillance.

The ORIGINAL recording and video of Ted Leo covering Kelly Clarkson's 'Since U Been Gone' mixed with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs 'Maps'
Pitchfork recently revisited Kelly Clarkson's 2004 album and I had no idea that the producers of Since U Been Gone had based the chorus on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs 'Maps.' Now listening, it's so obvious. They featured an exact replica of the guitar break! NO WONDER IT WAS SO SCREAMABLE!

Karen O was a raucous art school iconoclast who’d written “Maps” as a vulnerable plea to her boyfriend, shedding real tears in the music video—and she would notably describe the experience of hearing “Since U Been Gone” as like “being bitten by a poisonous varmint,” her life cannibalized by the machine." (via Pitchfork)

The Superman sequels were a complete shitshow
Making Superman sequels are hard. Let’s talk about how difficult it was to make Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, from stunt casting Richard Pryor to slashing a budget in half, days before filming. 

Robert Pattinson and Bong Joon-ho are making a sci-fi movie together
Here’s what we know about ‘Mickey7’, the ‘Parasite’ director’s first English language movie in five years.

The Quiet Rage of Ambient Music
My ears perked right up when a recent episode of How Long Gone made passing mention of Brian Eno’s $30 app. There’s really no middle ground in charging $30 for an app. Some things are $30 because they are good (lobster), others are $30 because they are bad (a single Shein haul).

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind – Shunryu Suzuki

Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress.

🌎 Links

‘I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson’ Renewed for Season 3 at Netflix
The pattern is SO complicated

Crypto prices tank, taking some companies with them

Why does it feel like there is going to be an Apple+ mini-series on the Crypto & NFT ponzi scheme?

The True Story of Dogstar, Keanu Reeves' Mediocre '90s Rock Band That Toured the World
In an excerpt from the new book Keanu Reeves: Most Triumphant, Alex Pappademas traces the origins of an LA band that somehow ended up opening for Weezer and David Bowie—and wasn't even the only band named Dogstar in town.

Cool Things People Do With Their Blogs

Small and independent blogs are always full of surprises. The more blogs I stumble upon, the more genuinely surprised I am by the things people do with their blogs. It seemed like a good idea to summarize the highlights here.

Arcade Fire on SNL

Arcade Fire was on SNL this weekend. I remember buying their first album in 2004. It was $6.99 at Circuit City. Remember those stores? I remember listening to Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) on repeat. It didn't sound like anything I had ever heard before. For some reason, it reminded me of Louis Lowry's book, The Giver (which still has never been adapted properly in a movie or mini-series). Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) was one of the first songs that I remember feeling like it had come from another place. As if some ancient truth was buried inside the chords and lyrics – more of a spirit than a song. Like the song, the band has a beautifully chaotic and unpolished sound to them. Even after 20 years, Grammy awards and fame, the band still has a sound that feels very authentic. It still feels like they believe in the music they are making. 

 

As a new Dad, I about cried when Win Butler said, "Eddie, I love you" before performing Unconditional I (Lookout Kid) – see video above. They also played Lightning I, II.  

🎶 Big Thief – Certainty (Live on Corden)

"It's a new don.earth update!"

A24, the cool film studio, wants to sell you a membership
A24 is brilliant in generating recurring revenue through a subscription service that drives up the sense of exclusivety within their community. For $5 per month or $55 per year, members get a subscription to A24’s quarterly print zine, a membership pin, a birthday gift, access to special merch and discounts, various forms of “VIP treatment,” including priority access to IRL events, and they are add to “Close Friends” list on Instagram, where they can see Stories that non-member followers can’t, “plus giveaways, sales, and sneak peeks we’ll never post to main.”

Related: How an A24 T-Shirt Became an Essential Piece in the Downtown Wardrobe

This is art in 2022 – Hypnotizing, Bizarre Footage Of Cars Vs. A Giant Bulge In The Road

Don't know where it came from, who made it, why it was created, but you can't stop watching.

Who ❋ Needs Words ✎ When You ➰Have Symbols❓
Nouveau Rebus is bringing back dingbats and glyphs one DTC branding project at a time.

The next frontier in branding? Logos you can see from space
Rooftop solar panels are giving companies like Tesla, Target, and Disney a way to supersize their branding.

Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation 
The results of a new study suggest "that virtual interaction comes with a cognitive cost for creative idea generation". In-person is better for the production of creative ideas.