Coffee. Eggs. Computer. Cat. Computer. Sandwich. Dishes. FaceTime. Computer. Walk. Phone. Sleep.
The quarantine carries on like clockwork; except the clock isn't stable. Days drag on, while weeks zoom by. And months? Well, I'll just say this: accessing memories from January would require a wormhole.
Speaking of wormholes… just as the lockdown picked up in the US — amidst March’s mad rush to stock up on essentials and sanitize everything — I made a short video called #WorkFromHome. Many of you joined the newsletter after this, so feel free to take a look. It’s also slightly sharper now, since I just found a way to download clips in higher res.
Rewatching it now feels like uncovering a fossil; an artifact from a bygone state of mind. One thing that strikes me is how, at one point, the thought of "quarantining" actually seemed the slightest bit enticing; like leaving school early on account of a snowstorm (my Minnesotan roots talking here).
But any novelty there at the beginning has long since vanished. I've made the self-starter sourdough. I've done the living room workouts. I've cycled through Zoom backgrounds. All of which I’ve done in the same rooms, the same clothes, and the same mask (which has gone through the wash more than a few times by now). Is any of this normal? Or is it all too normal?
The Covid pendulum swings on, between hypernormal to paranormal, but never stands still. The toilet paper shortage came and went. The stock market plunged and bounced back. The restaurants closed, reopened, and closed again. Just as we reach the peak of one direction, we swing right back to where we came. And while the daily happenings can be so erratic, you can at least be certain there’ll be more of it when you wake up tomorrow. More news; more stories; more updates; beating on like a metronome. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Source
But how many BPM? Is it accelerating or decelerating? Is there a rhythm here, or is it all just noise? Like the piano on which the metronome sits, culture plays along; yielding to this wacky beat, and going off in its own tangents. But with so many lives to save and essential work to be done, what's the function of all this "artistic" stuff anyways? Is it a beacon of hope? Or like the violins atop the sinking titanic, simply a soundtrack to impending doom? Only time will tell (if we can trust it, at least).
Filter Bubble Friday #4
This Is Not Normal
Music video (4 min)
This first piece comes from one of my absolute favorite musical groups; although “musical group” seems hardly adequate to describe what they are. They’re called Negativland, and whatever it is they do, they’ve been doing it since the late 70s… and they’re still at it today. This track comes from their latest album True False (2019).
My own words couldn’t possibly do justice here, so I went straight to the source. Here are some thoughts from Negativland’s Mark Hosler and Jon Leidecker, and filmmaker Ryan Worsley:
Mark:
“This Is Not Normal turned out to be a track on the True False album that got a lot of strong reaction from listeners in 2019. Ryan approached us this past April with an idea to essentially "repurpose" that track into something visual that was inspired by the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and how it had affected her personally, and we were sure she'd come up with something great.”
Jon:
“We got serious about finishing the album 'True False' in late 2016. In the wake of the election, the phrase 'this is not normal' became a talking head litany, intoned as if you're to repeat it aloud back to the screen you're watching. The sheer repetition of the term revealed it as a false hope; by the tenth time you hear it proclaimed, you just know: 'This sentence is False'. As we'd made the decision not to signal boost the sitting president by sampling him, this track was a way of getting at the current landscape without locking us into only one meaning. All the themes of the record pretty much come together on that track.
Ryan does not like to mention or make a big deal out of it, but it's part of the video for me that she made it while working through a case of the virus herself. She was fearless, which I found an incredibly reassuring antidote to the daily headlines. I think people can tell that's in the work.”
Ryan:
“After Covid hit, and everything was suddenly NOT NORMAL. The song from TRUE FALSE resonated in a sort of different way. [The song has] so many different voices reiterating "THIS IS NOT NORMAL," like it's speaking to a future nobody imagined. But it's hard to remember last week at this point, and it's even harder to gauge whether last week's events matter this week, or if what matters now will matter tomorrow. It's a weird thing to process, but hopefully the video evokes some of these feelings. Of course, the main focus is dogs barking with the voices of children pretending to be dogs. AND THAT'S NORMAL.”
Quarantine Dog Good Boy
Video (3 min)
So we’ve covered humans speaking like dogs; why don’t we reverse it? This video, ironically made by a production company called Normal, features a dog named Martin who simply wants to keep his humans happy during the quarantine:
"They watch the orange man and I feel their hopelessness; their fear; their desperation. It makes me want to cuddle them harder, because I know my cuddles are good for them."
Little does Martin know, his cuddles may not be good for them after all… This film’s got a dark side, but it’s also hysterically funny (enough to make me actually laugh out loud, which doesn’t happen often). Oh, and I guess it was made in 48 hours?
Covid Loop
Video (∞ duration)
Martin got you down? Maybe this will lighten the mood. Here’s another stylish take on the virus’ spread, but with a much less menacing vibe. This comic-style loop follows Covid’s trajectory through the panels of eight interconnected vignettes. The loop completes after a minute, but if you’re so inclined, you can watch it forever!
Here’s a note from the creator, Yuval Haker, on his piece’s form:
“The comic strip is a self-imposed limitation. With these hard boundaries in place, the characters could “break the rules” – flow between panels and take control of their frames.”
Parting Us
Short film (10 min)
If the last piece rides the Covid Roundabout, this one takes the Coronavirus Scenic Route. And it’s scenic indeed; as there’s a new shooting/editing technique about every 30 seconds. But that’s not to say its value is all visual. The film’s visual pluralism only reinforces its deeper pluralist leaning — as a mosaic of human perspective. Among others, we hear from medical workers, a firefighter, a florist, and several artists; all of whom share their own methods of coping, seeking gratitude, and staying hopeful in these strange and uncertain times.
Domestic Cozy
Blogchain (12 entries)
For the past few months, I’ve drenched my brain in the writings of Venkatesh Rao. He does essays, books, podcasts, and some world-class Tweetstorms. This won’t be the last time I share his work on here, so we might as well start it off with domestic cozy.
Venkat’s got a penchant for inventing his own neologisms, and spinning them out into grand societal theories. Here, he introduces a new one called domestic cozy, which he contrasts with a previous coinage, premium mediocre:
"Instagram, Tinder, kale salads, and Urban Outfitters are premium mediocre. Minecraft, YouTube, cooking at home, and knitting are domestic cozy. Steve Jobs represented the premium that premium mediocrity aspired towards. Elon Musk represents the relaxed-playfulness-amidst-weirdness at the heart of domestic cozy."
This blogchain, consisting of entries every month from March 2019 to March 2020, concluded just as the term became magnitudes more relevant — as we’ve entered what he calls a hard cozy. Writing back in March of 2019:
"[Domestic cozy] finds its best expression in privacy, among friends, rather than in public, among strangers. It prioritizes the needs of the actor rather than the expectations of the spectator. It seeks to predictably control a small, closed environment rather than gamble in a large, open one."
The series meanders well beyond the bounds of domesticity — weaving in topics like TikTok, ASMR, inactivewear, Venmo, admissions scandals, snowplow parenting, drone sweaters, 4chan, the Prisoner's Dilemma, and the wonders of The Great Indoors. You can think of it as a Gen Z field guide.
I hope these links provide some weekend entertainment during your own hard cozy. Please do share your thoughts, and send over anything you‘ve been chewing on. Until next time,
-Billy