1393

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.

youtube: High Weirdness Then and Now: The Occult Revival in the ’70s and Today

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The Politics of High Weirdness: a Litquake talk with Erik Davis and RU Sirius

For Litquake 2019, Erik Davis spoke with RU Sirius about the politics of high weirdness, then and now.

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High Weirdness By Mail  by Ivan Stang

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.

goodreads   /  wikipedia

1392 – Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019 documentary)

Memory: The Origins of Alien is a 2019 documentary film that traces the origin of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise.  Directed and written by Alexandre O. Philippe, it focuses on the idea that film is “a collective art form – not just the wider circle of writers, performers and technicians beyond the director, but in the case of the truly great films, serendipitous access to a deeper collective unconscious …”, tracing the connections from H. P. Lovecraft to Francis Bacon to the Greek Furies. (wiki)   /   imdb   /   rt

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30 Alien Poster Designs   /   Poster Posse Project   /   alternativemovieposters.com/portfolio

1359 – Trover Saves the Universe (2019 video game)

From the co-creator of Rick and Morty comes Trover Saves the Universe.

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Your dogs have been dognapped by a beaked lunatic named Glorkon who stuffed them into his eye holes and is using their life essence to destroy the universe. You’re partnered with Trover, a little purple eye-hole monster who isn’t a huge fan of working or being put in the position of having to save the universe. He’s also not that big a fan of you quite frankly, and neither am I. (Jk, you’re great)

Only you and Trover can save everything in this bizarre comedy adventure, created by Justin Roiland!

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• A comedy adventure filled with combat, platforming, puzzles, and morally questionable choices. See how the best intentions can go horribly awry.
• You control Trover’s movements, but not his mouth. He’s got a lot to say about what’s going on in the game.
• Travel the cosmos to experience a variety of weird alien planets and bizarre characters with big personalities.
• Upgrade Trover AND YOURSELF with new abilities to (hopefully) defeat Glorkon while evading awkward situations.
• You’ll be immersed in weirdness, no matter which display you use — play on TV, monitor or VR headset displays.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM):  Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system / OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit versions) / Processor: Intel Core i5-2400/AMD FX-8320 or better / Memory: 8 GB RAM / Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 670 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or better / Storage: 25 GB available space

Trover Saves the Universe – Official Free DLC Trailer

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steam

1357 – Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018)

timespace coordinates: Victorian era Gotham City

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight is a 2018 American animated steampunk superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, featuring an alternate version of the DC Comics character Batman. It is the thirtieth film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. It is directed and produced by Sam Liu and written by James Krieg, loosely based on the one-shot graphic novel of the same name by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola. (wiki)

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, originally published in 1989, is considered to be DC Comics’ first Elseworlds story. “In ELSEWORLDS, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places–some that have existed, and others that can’t, couldn’t or shouldn’t exist.” – DC editorial copy.

Influences   /   imdb

1341 – GTFO (2015 documentary)

GTFO (also known as GTFO: Get the F&#% Out) is a 2015 American documentary film, directed by Shannon Sun-Higginson, about sexism and women in the world of video games. It premiered at South by Southwest on March 14, 2015.

Sun-Higginson, a documentary filmmaker from New York City, began work on GTFO in early 2012 and ultimately funded it as a Kickstarter project. She was initially inspired to create the film after watching a clip from live-stream gaming competition Cross Assault in which a player repeatedly sexually harassed his teammate. Sun-Higginson then “decided to take a step back and explore what it means to be a woman in gaming in general, both the positive and the negative.” 

The movie compiles interviews from gamers, developers, journalists to show how pervasive sexist behavior is in the gaming world. 

The film’s premiere at South by Southwest was met with primarily favorable reviews, with critic Dennis Harvey commenting: “Several other documentaries are currently in the works on the same subject, and many will no doubt be a lot slicker than ‘GTFO.’ But the rough edges of Sun-Higginson’s Kickstarter-funded feature lend it an ingratiating, unpretentious modesty, and its lack of rancor on a topic that might’ve easily supported a more sensationalist approach can only be a plus in reaching male gamers most in need of its wake-up call.” (wiki)

imdb

1338

Of Gamers, Gates, and Disco Demolition: The Roots of Reactionary Rage

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*Disco_Demolition_Night

1324 – Strange Days (1995)

timespace coordinates: 1999, turn of the century (near-future) Los Angeles (racial war zone / New Year’s Eve party) 

Strange Days is a 1995 American science fiction thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, and produced by Cameron and Steven-Charles Jaffe. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore. Set in the last two days of 1999, the film follows the story of a black marketeer of SQUID discs, recordings that allow a user to experience the recorder’s memories and physical sensations, as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the murder of a prostitute.

Blending science fiction with film noir conventions, Strange Days explores themes such as racism, abuse of power, rape, and voyeurism. Although the story was conceived by Cameron around 1986, Bigelow found inspiration after incidents such as the Lorena Bobbitt trial and the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed the Rodney King verdict.

Strange Days was a commercial failure and almost derailed Bigelow’s career (…) Nevertheless, the film’s critical standing has improved over the years, with many fans feeling that the film has been overlooked by a casual mass audience and misguided critics.

The scene where the crowd celebrates the turn of the new century at the end of the film was shot at the corner of the 5th and Flower streets, between the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and the Los Angeles Public Library. Over 50 off-duty police officers were hired to control an assembled crowd of 10,000 people, who had to pay $10 in advance to attend the event. The film-makers also hired rave promoters Moss Jacobs and Philip Blaine to produce performances featuring Aphex Twin, Deee-Lite, as well as “all the cyber-techno bands they could garner”.

In 2015, The Washington Post editor Sonny Bunch felt that Strange Days was still relevant, comparing the imagery captured by the SQUID units to that of first-person shooters or cellphone videos on YouTube. He added that events such as Jeriko One’s murder and the subsequent coverup of the crime contribute to activist movements like Black Lives Matter, and that their media documentation amplifies their reception and consequences. (read more: Themes)

wiki   /   imdb