1454 – Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

timespace coordinates: New York City in 1957

Motherless Brooklyn is a 2019 American neo-noir crime film written, produced and directed by Edward Norton, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem. Set in 1950s New York, the film follows a private investigator with Tourette syndrome, who is determined to solve the murder of his mentor. Along with Norton, the film also stars Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Bobby Cannavale, Cherry Jones, Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe.

A passion project of Norton’s ever since he read Lethem’s novel in 1999, the film took nearly 20 years to go into production. Although the book is set in contemporary times, Norton felt the plot and dialogue lent themselves more to a noir setting — moving it to the 1950s, with many added plot points inspired by The Power Broker.  (wiki)

imdb

1452 – Forgotton Anne (2018 video game)

timespace coordinates: / Forgotten Lands, a magical parallel universe where lost objects — everything from missing socks to discarded lamps — come to life, hoping one day that they might be remembered again and returned to the real world.

Forgotton Anne is an indie adventure-platformer video game developed by ThroughLine Games and published by Square Enix Collective. The game features a hand-drawn anime aesthetic style and an orchestral score performed by the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra and was released on May 15, 2018 on Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. (wiki)

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows 7 or above / Processor: Intel Core i3-530, 2.93 Ghz or AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.40Ghz / Memory: 3 GB RAM / Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT 630 or AMD Radeon HD 4870 / DirectX: Version 9.0c / Storage: 12 GB available space

steam

1451 – Wonderstruck (2017)

timespace coordinates: 1927 New Jersey / 1977 Minnesota > New York City

Wonderstruck is a 2017 American mystery drama film directed by Todd Haynes and based on the 2011 novel Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, who also adapted the novel into a screenplay. The film stars Oakes Fegley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Millicent Simmonds.

The film interlaces two stories set fifty years apart, switching frequently between them, with the older storyline filmed in black and white. Each tells the story of a child’s quest. In 1927, young deaf girl Rose runs away from her father’s New Jersey home to find her mother/idol, the actress Lillian Mayhew. In 1977, recently orphaned Ben, made deaf by a freakish accident, runs away from his Minnesota home in search of his father. (wiki)

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“A curator’s job is an important one, for it is the curator who decides what belongs in the museum. In a way, anyone who collects things in the privacy of his own home is a curator. But how did the very first curators store their collections? They were kept
in pieces of furniture called Cabinets of Wonder. Eventually, some collections grew beyond the confines of a single cabinet and took over entire rooms. See figure nine.”

1448 – Atlantics / Atlantique (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s suburb of Dakar (Senegal) that lies along the Atlantic coast

Atlantics (French: Atlantique) is a 2019 internationally co-produced supernatural romantic drama film directed by Mati Diop, in her feature directorial debut. Diop made history when the film premiered at Cannes, becoming the first black woman to direct a film featured In Competition at the festival. At Cannes, the film won the Grand Prix. (wiki)

imdb

1420

«The Romans stole the alphabeta system from the Greeks through war», explains Rammellzee. «Then, in medieval times, monks ornamented letters to hide their meaning from the people. Now, the letter is armored against further manipulation.»

New York graffiti artist and B-boy theoretician Rammellzee (the artist encases himself during gallery performances in Gasholeer, a 148-pound, gadgetry-encrusted exoskeleton inspired by an android he painted on a subway train in 1981. Four years in the making, Rammellzee’s exuberantly low-tech costume bristles with rocket launchers, nozzles that gush gouts of flame, and an all-important sound system.)

«From both wrists, I can shoot seven flames, nine flames from each sneaker’s heel, and colored flames from the throat. Two girl doll heads hanging from my waist and in front of my balls spit fire and vomit smoke… The sound system consists of a Computator, which is a system of screws with wires. These screws can be depressed when the keyboard gun is locked into it. The sound travels through the keyboard and screws, then through the Computator, then the belt, and on up to the four mid-range speakers (with tweeters). This is all balanced by a forward wheel from a jet fighter plane. I also use an echo chamber, Vocoder, and system of strobe lights. A coolant device keeps my head and chest at normal temperature. A 100-watt amp and batteries give me power.»

«slanguage» – a heavily encrypted hip-hop argot – is the linguistic equivalent of graffiti «tags» all over the mother tongue. In an essay on English as the imperial language of the Internet, the cultural critic McKenzie Wark argues for the willful, viral corruption of the lingua franca of global corporate monoculture as a political act.

Black to the Future: Afrofuturism 1.0

Mark Dery

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1417 – Waste Tide (2013 novel)

For All Tomorrow’s Parties. 全为明日派对。

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timespace coordinates: The Waste Tide depicts a dystopian China in the post-2020 era. (2040’s -2050’s) In the Guiyu island, the large electronic recycle industries are in full control of local lineage associations. The laborers who undertake dangerous work for the profit of the Chinese and foreign businessmen who employ them are depicted not as humans, but cyborgs whose bodies and minds have been altered permanently through bio-engineering.

The Waste Tide is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Chen Qiufan.

The story takes place in the imaginary ”Silicon Isle”. The Chinese word ”硅屿” for Silicon Isle shares a similar pronunciation with Guiyu (Chinese: 贵屿) in Mandarin. In the real world, Guiyu is a town in the Shantou prefecture of Guangdong province in China. And it is Shantou where Chen Qiufan was born and grew up before he entered Peking University. Situated on the South China Sea coast, Guiyu got famous in the global environmentalist community for its reception of E-waste. The town held the record for being the largest E-waste site up to 2013. Though some residents got rich by electronic recycling, pollution became serious in the town. Talking about the background of writing the novel, Chen said: ”Choosing my hometown as background to write the story, is related to my thinking of China. To depict the pain of changing China, is just because I desire for she getting better gradually.’ (wiki)

goodreads

1415 – Uncut Gems (2019)

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. “

imdb   /   rt

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