If you've heard of NFTs you probably have thoughts on NFTs. It's a topic that is wrapped up in a lot of, understandably, heated opinions. Many believe it is the future of transactions and the Internet as a whole, while others believe it is a eco-terrorism grift that overlays capitalism on anything and everything. I tend to veer more towards the latter but try to keep an open mind about legitimate and decidedly fun versions of it.
As I sort through my thoughts on the matter, I found this Folding Ideas documentary - Line Goes Up - The Problem with NFTs - to be immensely enlightening. Yes, it is two hours long and that is an absurdly long runtime for a YouTube video but it's well researched, entertaining and educational. You don't have to watch it all in one sitting but I do recommend you watch it all.
I find discussions about NFTs to be the most exhausting part of the whole endeavor, so it's nice to be able to sit back and soak in some facts about the whole thing.
A few months back I was flying to New York and posted an Instagram Story of our descent set to the Jay Leo Phillips song "You Might Not Like What You See When You Get There." It worked quite well in my opinion and sparked the idea to try fleshing out some footage set to the song.
Cut to a few months later (aka today) and now there's an official video for the track set to various bits and bobs of video that I've captured over the years. It's not really a narrative piece but the track is instrumental and I think the two pair together well. At the very least, I'm happy with it and Jay seems to be, too.
The EP from which the song comes is called DAYS and you can get it on Bandcamp or streaming. If you're into Tortoise, The Sea and Cake or some of the instrumental Jim O'Rourke stuff, I believe you'll dig it.
Obviously the research doc making the rounds is being simplified to Smoke Weed to Prevent COVID; which is not what the paper discovered. This interview goes into much more detail and it’s a fascinating read.
I can't quite recall how I stumbled upon it but Research and Destroy New York City is a repository of publications, zines, posters and other ephemera stemming from various critiques of the NYPD.. of which their are many.
The Welcome to Fear City publication is a particularly unique entry in this forum.. here's the rundown:
...produced and distributed by the Council for Public Safety, a front group for NYPD police unions, during a contract dispute with the city. While intended to be semi-satirical, it serves as a cop's-eye view of urban space as a cesspool of crime and of a fragile society held together by sheer force of policing alone.
Absolutely insane that this was produced at all and even more insane that they put that cover on it.
Plenty more intriguing publications on the site; many of which are infuriating or depressing just because of the sheer enormity of how corrupt those systems are but, hey, worth a read!
can never decide if stuff like this is more depressing or more infuriating. It's definitely both but which wins out? Whatever it is, it's most certainly idiotic.
