Occasional Weeknote #6

Weeknote #6, got Tha Liks in the mix so excuse us as we rip.

Some Links Worth Sharing

• Exit the Wu: Anil’s fantastic recollection of seeing Wu-Tang live in 1999 when an on-the-lam ODB randomly showed up to perform and then disappeared.
• Light pollution map
• Historical Tech Tree: This is overwhelming in the best way.
• Michael Paul Smith’s photography is so much fun. Miniatures photographed in a full-size environment in such a way they look totally natural. Be sure to watch the video and see many, many photos on his Flickr. Sadly, Smith died in 2018.

Media Notes

• Reading
  • I started Ben Pedroche’s Independent As F***: Underground Hip-Hop from 1995-2005 this week. I wrote a bit for Ben’s site Grown Up Rap a few years back. Also, I’m reading too many books at once.
• Movies
  • I watched Jour de Fête yet again, this time the color version. It’s an interesting film because Tati shot it in the 1940s with a color film camera that used the new Thomson-Color process. It was going to be the first French film shot in color. But, just in case, he filmed it simultaneously with a backup black-and-white camera and it’s good thing he did because the color processing did not work out. In the 1960s, he released a slightly different version with a couple of added scenes and some pencil-colored elements. At some point, the color stock was thought to be lost, until it was found and his daughter was able to have it processed in the mid-1990s. The full-color version is a different (but not better) experience than the B&W version. Jonathan Rosenbaum has a wonderfully thorough piece about the movie that also appeared in the fantastic 2019 Taschen book on Tati.
  • I also watched Umberto Eco: A Library of the World and quite enjoyed it. So many beautiful libraries!
• Some good videos
  • A classic short Joe Pera bit
  • A guy rides the rails on a tiny homemade cart with a folding chair
  • The 40th (!!) DMC competition is coming up in Tokyo. Here’s the last 40 years of turntablist winners condensed down to five minutes.
  • Highlights from the Bowel Care Seminar: Another classic from the Found Footage Fest crew. Yes, folks, almost 50 and I still laugh at this stuff.
• Music recs
  • Here I Come: Alamo and Sadat X team up again for a new one with some serious old school vibes, rocking over the James Brown “Payback” sample. “Alamo, why you holding all this fire? Let it out the vault!”
  • Hustling In My Blood: Baby Cham, Stephen Marley, and Damien Marley team up for a banger.

Site(s) Notes

• I wrote about reviving my old Walkman this week.
• I ranked my favorite seasons on my lists page.

Life Notes

It’s been… a weird week. But alright. My mother-in-law is in town for a couple of weeks, which is good news.

As someone who firmly believes the holy grail of vegan foods will be when they perfect the sour cream and onion chip, I was super happy to come across PopChips new Sour Cream and Onion flavor. They get about 85% of the way there. Tasty stuff!

And now, a picture of a pink crepe myrtle I saw while walking my dog this week.