Joseph Needham’s sketchbook from his visit to the Buddhist grottoes at Chienfodong 千佛洞 (Qianfodong), Dunhuang, Gansu Province,… (NRI2/5/12/4)

time machine // database // travel guide
timespace coordinates: 2012 New York City‘s Diamond District
Uncut Gems is a 2019 American crime thriller film directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, (Good Time) who co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein. The film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, Lakeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, The Weeknd, and Eric Bogosian.
The plot follows Howard Ratner, a gambling addict in New York City’s Diamond District, who gets in over his head with loansharks and must retrieve an expensive gem he purchased in order to pay off his debts. (wiki)
“That’s a million dollar opal you’re holding. This is old school. Middle-earth shit. “
Based on his pioneering work in the recent book High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies, author and podcaster Erik Davis will explore the phenomenon of occult revivals, comparing and contrasting some of the factors that made the early 1970s and the late 2010s hotbeds of occultism, witchcraft, and visionary experience. Featuring films by visual artists Dustin Wong and Amanda Siegel.
For Litquake 2019, Erik Davis spoke with RU Sirius about the politics of high weirdness, then and now.
This hysterical hobbyist’s guide belongs in every hip library. Coot cat Reverend Ivan Stang, high holy of the Church of the SubGenius, has compiled a bestiary of American creeps and crazies so that you can write to them and receive mail that is weird, horrible, wonderfully absurd, or a combination of all three.
“The Universe of Keith Haring“, one of the most popular and significant artists of the 20th century, whose mantra was “Art is for everyone!” features interviews and archival footage of Fab 5 Freddy, Jeffrey Deitch, Kim Hastreiter, Grace Jones, Madonna, Yoko Ono, David LaChapelle, Kenny Scharf, Carlo McCormick, Andy Warhol, Ann Magnuson, Tony Shafrazi, and Junior Vasquez. Audio excerpts from original interviews with Keith Haring were conducted by Haring’s biographer John Gruen. (rt)
The Universe of Keith Haring is a 2008 documentary by the filmmaker Christina Clausen.
timespace coordinates: 1980’s – 1991 – 1993 Norway
Lords of Chaos is a 2018 horror-thriller film directed by Jonas Åkerlund and written by Dennis Magnusson and Åkerlund. Adapted from the 1998 book of the same name, the film is a semi-fictionalised account of the early 1990s Norwegian black metal scene told from the perspective of Mayhem co-founder Euronymous. It stars Rory Culkin as Euronymous, Emory Cohen as Varg Vikernes, Jack Kilmer as Dead, and Sky Ferreira as Ann-Marit (character invented for the movie). Music for the film is by sigur rós. (wiki)
timespace coordinates: focus on the rave scene in post-communist Eastern Europe
“Polish animator Tomek Popakul’s riveting Acid Rain has been one of the darlings of the festival circuit this year. The mo-cap/2D animated short, which centers on a young runaway from an Eastern European village who falls in with a bad crowd, has been praised for its edgy visuals, memorable electronic music and highly original point of view.” (read more – animationmagazine)
