Weekend Reads (Dec 23): Virtual Concerts, Public Domain Day, TikTok Shoegaze
Recommended weekend reading for December 23, 2023.
Note: There will be no “Weekend Reads” edition on December 30th due to the holidays. I hope you and all of your loved ones have a very safe and wonderful Christmas and New Year. I’ll see you in 2024 with a bunch of new stuff, including my 2023 mix.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
After Kiss played their final farewell show in Madison Square Garden, the iconic rock band revealed that they were going to keep on rocking forever… as virtual avatars created by Industrial Light & Magic.
At the end of the show, after Kiss finished playing its last song (“Rock and Roll All Nite”), they disappeared in a hail of fire and smoke. After the smoke faded away, the lights went down, and on the screen behind the stage, a camera zoomed across a spooky lake on some fantastic planet toward the silhouettes of four figures: the new digital avatars of Kiss, in what I suppose must be their final form.
As the article points out, it actually kind of makes sense for a band like Kiss to do this, given how image-driven and merchandise-oriented they’ve been since the beginning of their 50-year career. And ABBA has been going this sort of thing for a year now, with their ABBA Voyage show.
No doubt the use of virtual avatars will allow for some incredible possibilities in terms of spectacle, similar to what CGI can allow filmmakers to achieve. But just as CGI overuse can make for a tepid movie that feels more like a video game cutscene than anything truly cinematic, I imagine that watching a virtual rock concert could feel underwhelming when compared to the real thing.
Via Canned Dragons.
The io9 writers have compiled a list of the year’s best sci-fi, fantasy, and horror moments, including scenes from The Mandalorian, Doctor Who, Star Trek: Picard, and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. For my money, few scenes from 2023 were as rewarding or enjoyable as the triumphant return of the Enterprise-D.
I still get choked up as soon as I hear that classic TNG theme.
Meanwhile, Zack Zwiezen compiles the year’s biggest video game-related disappoinments, including all of the layoffs and studio closings.
Last year, layoffs were a problem in the game industry. And this year, they became an even bigger problem. I can’t think of a year in which I saw more developers laid off than 2023. It’s been practically a weekly occurrence during most of the last 12 months. It got so bad that I started losing track of all of the layoffs that had happened. It became a sad blur of people losing their jobs across dozens of studios and publishers.
The shortlists for ten Oscar categories have been announced, including “International Feature,” “Makeup and Hairstyling,” “Original Song,” and “Visual Effects.” To date, Barbie has received the most nominations (five) while Killers of the Flower Moon has received four. The final nominations will be announced on January 23, 2024 and the awards ceremony will occur on March 10, 2024 with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.
Via 1440.
On January 1, aka “Public Domain Day,” thousands of copyrighted books, movies, recordings, and other works from 1928 will enter the public domain.
A few highlights include: Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, A. A. Milne’s House at Pooh Corner (which introduced Tigger), Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train, Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie (the debut of Mickey Mouse), Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Via Pluralistic.
Germain Lussier tries to understand why his wife loves Disney’s animated Robin Hood film so much. (The film celebrated its 50th anniversary back in November.)
It’s hard not to be captivated by the characters too, both because of the incredibly well-defined and beautiful animation, but also the amazing voice actors. Every single character in Robin Hood, from Robin himself to the evil Prince John, down to the supporting characters like Tagalong and Toby, all have incredibly distinct, pleasing voices. Everyone sounds almost melodic and you want to listen to them speak no matter what they say.
As all this was happening, across the couch Jayne’s eyes were bright and attentive. She clapped, smiled, and geeked out at all the subtle one-liners only a fan would love. (Prince John saying, “Oh Poppycock, female bandits?” and Skippy mentioning “My mom has a lot of kids” are two of her faves). But as her energy rose, mine fell. I still found Robin Hood’s pacing to be hugely detrimental to my enjoyment of it. For every clever moment where Robin dressed up or Sir Hiss outsmarted everyone on screen, I found it difficult to stay awake, even though it was barely 9 p.m.
I’m with Lussier’s wife on this one: Disney’s Robin Hood is an absolute classic, and honestly, probably the first Disney movie that I genuinely liked as a kid. Sure, the juxtaposition of Southern music and accents with the Merry Olde England setting is a little odd at times, but it also just adds to the film’s unique panache.
Shoegaze has experienced a recent explosion of popularity, particularly amongst Gen-Z, and much of that’s due to TikTok.
In early 2023, an 18-year-old college student decided to make her first-ever shoegaze song. Her friend sent her a “beat,” a grungy shoegaze instrumental crafted by the producer grayskies, and she spent two hours recording herself singing over it into her phone, using her everyday Apple earbuds as a microphone. No guitars were strummed, and no reverb pedals were stepped on. The next day, she titled the song “Your Face” and uploaded a snippet of it on TikTok, posting under the artist name Wisp. The video gained 100k views overnight, so she made another. That one got 600k views. She made another. That one quickly racked up 1 million views. Soon after, “Your Face” was being streamed millions of times on Spotify, and before Wisp even released a second song, she had signed a deal with Interscope Records.
Fast-forward eight months later and “Your Face” has been streamed nearly 30 million times on Spotify, almost twice as much as My Bloody Valentine’s classic Loveless closer “Soon.” The official sound snippet has been used in 126k TikTok videos, almost as many as Mitski’s runaway TikTok goliath “Washing Machine Heart” (174k videos). In the real world, Wisp sold-out her first-ever show in less than a half hour, and then her second just as quickly.
I’m not on TikTok so this article legitimately blew my mind — and gave me a slew of new artists to check out. Despite being a shoegaze fan for decades, I had no idea any of this stuff existed.
If you’re tired of the usual holiday fare and want to give your Christmas soundtrack a change-up, then check out some of these albums, including a Star Wars-related gem:
Released in 1980 as the popularity of Star Wars was sweeping through every galaxy — and no relation to the 1978 Holiday Special — this Christmas-themed release takes listeners through songs and stories about a droid factory that makes holiday toys year-round.
The Information is Beautiful Awards highlights the year’s best efforts in “data visualization, infographics, interactives, and information art.” Among 2023’s winners you’ll find infographics that explore how long it takes to fall in love, the history of earthquakes, women astronauts, and Chinese demographics, to name but a few topics.
Via TLDR Design.
Nerds everywhere are rejoicing at the news that Amazon has signed a licensing deal for Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000.
A full announcement from the UK-based tabletop miniature wargame company said Amazon Studios secured global rights to the Warhammer 40,000 universe — no word on the high fantasy Age of Sigmar or other offshoot settings. Superman and The Witcher actor Henry Cavill, one of the most high-profile fans and advocates for the hobby, will reportedly act as executive producer and star in multiple projects within what is already being called the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.
I’ve never actually played Warhammer 40,000, mainly because it’s such a costly endeavor, but I’m a sucker for its over-the-top grimdark lore. And hopefully, this means we’ll see more stuff like Syama Pedersen’s Astartes.
From the Blog
We’re nearing the end of one year, but I’m already looking ahead to the next. And specifically, to the movies and TV shows that I hope to see in 2024.
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