Weekend Reads: Marvin Gaye, Scott Adkins, Aging Goths, Dungeons & Dragons, the Commodore 64
Recommended weekend reading material for January 23, 2021.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
50 years ago this week, Marvin Gaye released “What’s Going On,” one of his greatest songs, and one of the greatest — and most prophetic — protest songs of all time.
As it turns 50 today, the fact that Marvin Gaye’s song “What’s Going On” doesn’t miss a beat with foretelling today’s social climate is outright troubling. Often, claims like these regarding music come with praises for aging like fine wine. To say the track is timeless is an understatement: it’s a little too timeless. January 20, 2021 is just a mirrored reflection of where this country stood half a century ago.
One of my favorite movie critics, Steven D. Greydanus, has posted a list of his top 21 films of 2000-2020, plus some additional selections.
I find myself looking back on my two decades of film writing and thinking about the films and the filmmakers that have come to mean the most to me over the last 21 years.
Not necessarily the “best,” most impressive, or most important films, or even necessarily the ones I recommend most strongly to others. The films that have most stayed with me in some particular way — that have haunted, challenged and changed me, or simply beckoned me irresistibly to revisit them time and again. The films that have in some way become a part of me, of my imaginative DNA.
Due to its tight budget and timelines, The Mandalorian owes more than a passing debt to video game developers.
“Triple-A video games are made at such a high, almost-photorealistic quality that the design process for them is fairly indistinguishable from that of feature films,” [Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil] Szostak explains. “Those designers can transition into working on a project like The Mandalorian fairly easily. They are also used to the deadline pressures that come with working in TV.”
Speaking of video games, I recently finished Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and found it a welcome addition to the Star Wars canon.
Scott Adkins might be the best action film star you’ve never heard of, and Jonah Jeng offers a comprehensive breakdown of his leading roles.
A workman’s dedication characterizes Adkins’ career as a whole, which, despite never quite achieving mainstream recognition, has nonetheless thrived on the direct-to-video (DTV) circuit. He starred in five films in 2020, and four the year before. Also in 2020, he debuted a YouTube series titled “The Art of Action,” in which he interviews various icons of the action genre — past guests have included Cynthia Rothrock, Chad Stahelski, and Dolph Lundgren — to the delight and edification of fans worldwide. As not just a world-class action star but an advocate for and teacher of “the art of action,” Adkins has become an invaluable presence not just onscreen but in the action community more generally.
Some of Adkins films include Ip Man 4, The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud, Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning.
With their love of the antique and willingness to explore and accept life’s darker aspects, Goths might hold a clue for aging gracefully.
“Happy Goth” may seem like an oxymoron — but that’s the point. Bush argues that Goths’ success in aging has a lot to do with their ability to juggle opposing, seemingly paradoxical energies. Take Goths’ emotional intensity: While off-putting to some, Goths’ willingness to harness dark feelings such as despair, gloom and hopelessness, rather than repress them, can prove healthier in the long run, Bush says. Equally vital is Goths’ ability to find humor, irony and beauty in supposedly “ugly” sources, such as flowers that grow by a cemetery or the absurd frailties of the aging body. In a culture, for instance, that already treats older women as frightful, why not own that, and become the most fabulous grand dame of darkness the world has ever seen?
As people have sought ways to escape or otherwise cope with the pandemic, the success and popularity of Dungeons & Dragons has gone through the roof.
“I suddenly had more time, since there were no more happy hours or dinners out,” said Benedicto, who in another group plays a young and preppy “dragonborn paladin” — a kind of holy fighter and spell-caster — named Aaravos Buffsprocket. “I think with the existential claustrophobia we were all feeling in the pandemic, feeling trapped in these confined spaces, escaping to a world that is boundless felt like a really good thing to do.”
I’ve been playing D&D via Roll20 since the pandemic started, and while it’s definitely a highlight of my week, I long for the day when we can start gathering in person ‘round an actual table once again.
And speaking of D&D, I’m sure that you saw all of the delightful Bernie Sanders memes that popped up following his appearance at the inauguration. Sanders’ now-iconic mittens are now a D&D magical item titled, appropriately enough, the Mittens of Redistribution.
Several decades ago, the music industry was terrified of people taping music in their homes. While the industry’s reaction may have been overblown, home taping did, indeed, have an effect.
In retrospect 40 years later, the anti-home-taping campaign may seem overly dramatic — a bit of a hand-wringing exercise launched by an industry that was terrified of losing their bottom line. As someone that grew up with hip-hop mixtapes, the dual cassette player was a crucial part of learning about new music, cultures, and styles. However, “home taping” arguably created the intention and normalization of copying music for free or at little cost.
After refusing requests to reunite for over two decades, The New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander got a band together to perform their smash 1998 single “You Get What You Give” at President Biden’s inauguration.
[A] presidential inauguration is vastly different from other potential reunions particularly when our democracy’s at stake. Or when you learn that one in four Americans under 25 has thought of suicide in the last month. So you hope if someone hears you singing, “If you feel your tree is breaking … just bend” on TV, you might give them the tiniest reminder to hang on in the face of the negativity we unfortunately can’t escape online or in the news every day.
The performance was great — “You Get What You Give” is such a classic ‘90s single — but if I’m totally honest, I was a little bummed that they cut the bridge “calling out” Beck, Hanson, Courtney Love, and Marilyn Manson.
Apple announced iTunes 20 years ago, and Kirk McElhearn reflects on its development and legacy.
On January 10, 2001, Steve Jobs went on the stage at Macworld Expo in San Francisco and presented a new app that would change the course of Apple. iTunes would become Apple’s most important app, not only because it was the companion of the iPod that would be released later that year, but also because it would become the framework for all of the company’s future online stores.
I don’t think that McElhearn is overstating things when he calls iTunes “Apple’s most important software, other than its operating systems.” Via The Loop.
Finally, here’s a nice bit of tech nostalgia: Andrew Liszewski reminisces about his beloved Commodore 64.
As a child of the 80s, I didn’t have an Atari, an NES, or even a Sega Master System. My first console was actually our family’s first computer: the Commodore 64. It was a passable gaming system, but more importantly, it was a device that taught me that technology was something that could be fun to explore and its secrets unlocked with patient trial and error.
I have some very fond memories of my family’s Commodore 64, too.
From the Blog
One of my goals for Opus in 2021 is to re-scan and re-upload the various concert photos that I’ve taken over the years and decades. I kicked things off with all of the band photos that I took at the 2007 Cornerstone Festival. Look for more such photos arriving on Opus in the coming weeks.
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