tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74328484914818983182024-03-19T21:05:54.927+13:00Chad Taylor / Marginalia<a href="https://chadtaylor.mobi/">chadtaylor.mobi</a>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comBlogger927125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-67393026850642500102024-03-17T10:58:00.006+13:002024-03-19T01:35:11.056+13:00Lens<p>Earlier this week I reactivated two of my 35mm compact cameras, the <a href="http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Rollei_35#Rollei_35_T" target="_blank">Rollei 35 T</a> and the <a href="http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Olympus_XA" target="_blank">Olympus XA</a>. Surprisingly, finding film and replacement batteries has gotten easier since the last time I looked. Both cameras appear to be in good working order. The meters function and the lenses aren't fogged. The proof will be running a film through them. The reasonably priced choice at the local photography outlet was Kodak 400ASA. I would have preferred a 100 colour or black-and-white.</p>
<p>The machines still feel great in the hand. I miss that mechanical click. (I recently updated to an Apple Magic Keyboard and am back to pounding it like a typewriter.) It took me a minute to remember how to remove the metal film back on the Rollei. Although I was anxious not to break the Olympus's moulded construction, the plastics have not corroded. You can use a pocket knife, a coin or even your thumbnail to unscrew the battery covers – how's that for right to repair? It took me a moment to recall how film is threaded on the take-up reel. Using the meter to bracket for depth of field came back to me straight away. I can recite Kodak's exposure tables, which is good because they're no longer printed on the back of the film box. </p>
<p>I was thinking about the cameras because film photography is central to a short story I'm working on – '<a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1537660" target="_blank">Osome</a>', first published 2003, which I'm revising and formatting for a new ebook edition.</p>
<p>Printing a proof of the story was as arcane an exercise as refitting the 40-year-old cameras. After hauling the Canon out of cupboard storage (my writing office is space-poor) and locating and plugging in the awkwardly stiff leads, I updated the software (for a new OS) and installed a new ink cartridge (more expensive than a 35mm film roll, less reliable, and stocked by as few stores). Once the device was nursed through its start-up, including unnecessary print head align tests and one paper feed jam, the pages printed on the second attempt.</p>
<p>I bought the Rollei and the Olympus about 10 years ago for almost nothing, from camera stores in London. Both were cheap because the technology was on the way out but they've held up a lot better than my 24-month-old printer, not to mention all those old digital devices bumping around in the drawers.</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-9172954731119421842024-03-06T16:22:00.001+13:002024-03-06T16:22:15.125+13:00Here comes the quiet life again<p>
Enjoyed Wim Wenders' new movie <i><a href="https://www.nme.com/features/film-interviews/wim-wenders-music-rock-lou-reed-perfect-days-3583870" target="_blank">Perfect Days</a></i>. Shot on video in Tokyo in a little over two weeks, it shares many elements with <i>Paris, Texas</i>: a broken family, confined spaces, a silent man, the resonance of daily rituals.</p><p>The director acknowledges the film's minimalist vibe is not only about the fictional character:</p>
<blockquote>
"There's too much of anything [now] and you cannot handle it. All the books I buy, all the colours and paints I buy… because I always wanted to paint a little bit again… I can open a paint store! And I have too much of everything in my own life – like everybody else I know – and not enough time. And Hirayama was the man I have inside me who has enough of everything and he doesn't need more. He never has the feeling he misses anything."
</blockquote>
<p>
I'm also enjoying Tarjei Vesaas' novel <i><a href="https://www.thenationalbookreview.com/features/2016/8/9/essay-a-novel-of-norwegian-loneliness-the-birds-by-tarjei-vesaas" target="_blank">The Birds</a></i> which I picked up at random in a book store in Singapore. The author's brightly painted study with its combination writing desk and bed <a href="https://norway2019.com/en/news/autorenschreibtisch-tarjei-vesaas" target="_blank">can be admired here</a>.
</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-41044897669632074372024-03-03T10:32:00.004+13:002024-03-05T14:59:22.833+13:00Recently played: Stars<ol>
<li>Yeah Yeah Yeahs - '<a href="https://youtu.be/HOYKdwbQwOg" target="_blank">Lovebomb</a>'</li>
<li>David Byrne and Brian Eno - '<a href="https://youtu.be/9XIYYaqCbJM" target="_blank">Help Me Somebody</a>'</li>
<li>Kreidler - '<a href="https://soundcloud.com/kreidlerofficial/hopscotch-single-version" target="_blank">Hopscotch</a>'</li>
<li>Martina Topley Bird - '<a href="https://youtu.be/Xo8nfAKrrII" target="_blank">Lying</a>'</li>
<li>Studio - '<a href="https://soundcloud.com/toddterje/studio-lifes-a-beach-todd" target="_blank">Life's A Beach</a>' (Todd Terje Mix)</li>
<li>Soshi Takeda - '<a href="https://takedasoshi.bandcamp.com/track/water-reverberation" target="_blank">Water Reverberation</a>'</li>
</ol>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-73987210104240993842024-03-01T04:41:00.003+13:002024-03-01T14:54:58.239+13:00Moving image<p>Writing and reading. Not watching movies so much. Not watching TV, at least very little TV produced in English, and I find myself unable to sit through new movies because they all seem so old. I'm sick of foreshadowing. I am sick of arcs, beats, character development, protagonists, antagonists, tropes, genre, needle drops, backstory, prequels, secondary characters, breaking the fourth wall, critics that use the word 'titular', press junkets, stans, TikTok, artificial intelligence, people that talk about Chekhov's gun but have never read or seen Chekhov, fight sequences, CGI, actors looking into the camera, actors who can't smoke, $200 million movies showing how tough life is, product placement, cameos, callbacks, retrocons, reboots, fan service, autoplay, subscriptions, upselling, apps, battery life, notifications, viral campaigns, hot takes.</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-61059678858443432812024-02-24T17:53:00.007+13:002024-02-26T15:24:23.848+13:00Bedside reading<p>If there was a snap test on Elon Musk I would probably do alright at it. The man is a subject of so many articles and podcasts that stepping in stories about him is unavoidable. Nevertheless, I was pleased to add to my knowledge <a href="https://www.zoeschiffer.com" target="_blank">Zoë Schiffer</a>'s comprehensive account of Musk's Twitter purchase, <em>Extremely Hardcore</em> (Portfolio / Penguin), a crisp timeline of short chapters not entirely unlike the articles Schiffer has written for <em>The Verge</em> and others.</p><p>Even more forensic detail would have been welcome -- we would kill to know what Apple CEO Tim Cook said in his November 2022 meeting with Musk that calmed him down after their "misunderstanding" -- and only so much logic can be applied to people who are not operating on much. It's a slow-motion car crash told very fast, and the car is driving itself.</p>
<p>I also recommend <a href="https://www.kylechayka.com" target="_blank">Kyle Chayka</a>'s <em>Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened The Internet</em> (Heligo Books) which tallies strongly with my opinions of the internet in 2024. The author makes sharp observations about the statistics about book publishing and music in our decade, and our learned dependency as consumers on what is served up to us by menus on retail sites like Netflix and Amazon.</p><p></p><blockquote>'The need to corral an audience in advance by succeeding on social media can be explained by the useful phrase "content capital". Established by the scholar Kate Eichhorn in her 2022 monograph <i>Content</i>, it describes the Internet-era state in which "one's ability to engage in work as an artist or as a writer is increasingly contingent on one's content capital; that is, one's ability to produce content not about one's work but about one's status as an artist, writer, or performer." In other words, the emphasis is not on the thing itself but the aura that surrounds it ... If Roland Barthes's 1967 essay predicted "the death of the author," the author's personal brand is now all that matters; it's the work itself that is dead.'</blockquote><p></p><p>Shout-out to Jaron Lanier who is one of the blurbs on <i>Filterworld</i> and not online so will never read this. Lanier wrote the book <i>Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts</i>, and all 10 were solid, but Chayka's unpicking of the banality of our reliance on numeric expressions of corporate policy is somehow more motivating. Chayka quotes scholar and critic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak" target="_blank">Gayatri Spivak</a>: "Globalisation takes place only in capital and data. Everything else is damage control."</p><p>(For short-form news about oncoming internet shittiness, see Gita Jackson's article '<a href="https://aftermath.site/openai-sora-scam-sillicon-valley" target="_blank">AI Video is a scam</a>'.)</p>
<p>Also read / reading: <em>Nevada</em>, by Imogen Binnie (Picador); Maria Golia's biography <em>Ornette Coleman: The Territory And The Adventure</em> (Reaktion); Pascal Garnier.</p>
Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-62269879434872405952024-02-13T21:50:00.002+13:002024-02-14T07:53:29.869+13:00Employee responsibilities<p>
Watching Claude Chabrol movies. As a student in the 1950s Chabrol worked in public relations for 20th Century Fox France who described him as the worst press officer they'd ever seen. The studio fired Chabrol and replaced him with Jean-Luc Godard, who they said was even worse.
</p>
<p>
Keyboardist Zia McCabe describes what went wrong with The Dandy Warhols' job after their Capitol Records deal:
</p>
<blockquote>
'That's a part of success especially as artists that you kind of have to face: that it doesn't last forever. And so I was trying to steer, this, you know, manage this phase of our career in a way that we weren't caught by surprise... because we had been so mismanaged by our accountants at the time; we weren't in front of it at all. Our taxes hadn't been paid in four years – that's the worst example. We owed money everywhere and I'm looking at this going, "Oh my god, we're such a cliché – our accountants spent / mismanaged our money and we're in debt all over the place as this is what I've been trying to avoid our whole careers, not be the cliché and the pitfalls of these other bands". And I think really truly had we not been on salary we would have known sooner that that wasn't right. And so if there's any advice moments in this interview, I would say: don't get on a salary.'
</blockquote>
<p>
The full interview by Tanya Pearson for the Women of Rock Oral History Project <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uyNfDCOByI" title="_blank">is online here</a>. (The above excerpt is around 35:24.)
</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-71411835959442516052024-02-10T22:23:00.002+13:002024-02-10T22:23:32.222+13:00Now playing: Wood dragon<ol>
<li>Rozi Plain – '<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocEH_Whba2k" target="_blank">Agreeing For Two</a>' (Sir Was Remix) </li>
<li>Maraschino – '<a href="https://maraschinoxo.bandcamp.com/track/angelface" target="_blank">Angelface</a>'</li>
<li>Orion Sun – '<a href="https://orionsun.bandcamp.com/track/concrete" target="_blank">Concrete</a>'</li>
<li>Kilig – '<a href="https://kilig.bandcamp.com/track/taking-hold-feat-wildes" target="_blank">Taking Hold</a>' feat. Wildes</li>
<li>Kilig – '<a href="https://kilig.bandcamp.com/track/how-you-holding-up" target="_blank">How You Holding Up</a>'</li>
</ol>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-23883400559382975622024-02-05T16:31:00.001+13:002024-02-05T16:31:29.056+13:00To say<p>This week I’m being interviewed for the ARTE channel talking about my novels. I am not so great at this. My writing process is so internalised it’s difficult putting it into words so I tend to divert to whatever’s in my head that day which is why in the only interview I did for <a href="https://chadtaylor.mobi/bluehotel.html"><em>Blue Hotel</em></a> I ended up talking about <em>Star Trek</em>. Note to self: stick to the fucking subject.</p>
<p>The modern artist should be laser focused on themselves and themselves only, as on-brand as a Marvel star and as controversial as an accountant, pre-armed with searchable terms, styled, rehearsed, etcetera.</p>
<p>And they must have an object to promote: new work, a streetwear collaboration, a recent arrest, anything. Not that they’re just working on something which is the only thing a novelist is ever doing.</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-29535493104263903502024-02-03T03:05:00.003+13:002024-02-07T04:30:18.105+13:00Now playing: Contingencies of the road<ol>
<li>Brian Jonestown Massacre – ‘<a href="https://youtu.be/g23n6qzfhuc">Whoever You Are</a>’</li>
<li>Khruangbin – ‘<a href="https://youtu.be/2e4oRKhilhA">A Love International</a>'</li>
<li>Yacht – '<a href="https://yacht.bandcamp.com/track/two-heads">Two Heads</a>'</li>
<li>The Slow Revolt – '<a href="https://theslowrevolt.bandcamp.com/album/never-get-close">Never Get Close</a>'</li>
<li>Kreidler – '<a href="https://youtu.be/JnHJh4c2d3o">Diver</a>'</li>
</ol>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-54816547300217989592024-01-22T14:53:00.001+13:002024-01-22T14:53:31.726+13:00Writers, room<p>
Signal app president Meredith Whittaker on AI's threat to writers:
</p>
<blockquote>
Those in the C-suite, if we have a story that is believable enough that AI will replace you, that's a really good way to suppress sort of worker wages, or unionization, or simply degrade working conditions. </blockquote><blockquote>And I would point to the Writer's Guild of America as sort of a frontline of some of this. So you have the threat of introducing AI into the writer's room and Hollywood. You have a strike that kind of codified around that set of issues. And who gets to determine where AI fits in this kind of rigidly structured, longtime unionized industry, and what role do writers have in making that decision? </blockquote><blockquote>And what sort of played out through that was an understanding that it doesn't necessarily matter if AI can replace your work. What it can do is serve as a pretext to degrade your work. So you're no longer a writer with health insurance and a full-time job and sort of a writer's room or whatever it is. In the Hollywood case, you are hypothetically an AI editor and you're hired as a contractor to fix a script at the end. </blockquote><blockquote>And of course ChatGPT can't write a compelling script, but you do something to it. It gets on production line and suddenly you've created another category that is much less expensive. Even though there's a huge amount of labor involved, the labor is just displaced into something that is then justified as less valuable.
</blockquote>
<p>
The podcast and transcript of Whittaker's interview with <i>WSJ</i>'s Sam Schechner at Davos <a href="https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/what-happens-to-privacy-in-the-age-of-ai/40cb9aee-926a-4b76-ad1d-5fb990d1b3fa" target="_blank">is here</a>.
</p>
<p>
The fourth Khruangbin LP <i>A La Sala</i> is out in April. The press release says it <a href="https://bleep.com/release/436283-khruangbin-a-la-sala" target="_blank">looks "back to their beginnings" of the first album</a> so I am there for it.
</p>
Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-36547439311874105982024-01-21T09:34:00.003+13:002024-01-21T09:52:54.372+13:00Nostalgie de la boeuf<p>Rewatching <i>Beef</i>. Creator and showrunner Lee Sung Jin <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/beef-netflix-finale-lee-sung-jin-interview" target="_blank">discussed the show's harrowing ending</a>:
</p>
<blockquote>I've been reading some online reactions of certain people feeling like the show kind of went off the rails, and they're right. The show very clearly does go off the rails, because I think so many times in life, where you start and where you end up, you're just like, how the hell did I get here?
</blockquote>
<p>Another source of stress may be the contradiction of a multimillion-dollar production that's telling the viewer how difficult life is.</p><p>I found <i>The Bear</i> more harrowing but easier to watch because the characters were on a wage.
Also, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/ayo-edebiri-ireland-joke-explained-1235792424/" target="_blank">Ayo Edebiri</a>.</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-45856839568359008552024-01-10T07:11:00.003+13:002024-01-10T07:11:23.881+13:00Berlin<p>
Enjoying <i>Berlin</i> on Netflix. <i>Money Heist</i> creator Alex Pina on drama:
</p>
<blockquote>
We are a country with <a href="https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-09-03/money-heist-creator-alex-pina-the-experience-for-the-viewer-is-much-better-when-things-go-bad.html" target="_blank">a major inferiority complex with fiction</a>... <i>Money Heist</i> is crazy because these guys could never be locked inside the Bank of Spain because they would wipe them out, but you have to do something that has other components, with its own internal rules, which have to be coherent, and not with reality, which is contemptible from the point of view of fiction."
</blockquote>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-32058665289569010292024-01-07T17:46:00.007+13:002024-02-07T04:30:58.720+13:00Now playing: Larry Vaughn for Mayor<p>In summer the town where I live is like Amity in <i>Jaws</i>. The streets are jammed with tourists and its harbour inlet is a pupping site for great white sharks. This summer has been about writing, painting the bedroom, getting the flu and reading: Patrick Modiano, Akimitsu Takagi, Tracy Kidder (<i>The Soul of a New Machine</i>), Maurice LeBlanc, Zeke Faux (<i>Number Go Up</i>), Pascal Garnier, Pierre Lemaitre. Music has been all over the place. C'est le vent, Betty.</p>
<ol>
<li>Holy Fuck - '<a href="https://soundcloud.com/holyfuck/free-gloss-chloee-remix-feat" title="_blank">Free Gloss</a>' (feat Nicholas Allbrook) Chloë Remix</li>
<li>Holy Fuck - '<a href="https://soundcloud.com/holyfuck/luxe" target="_blank">Luxe</a>' feat. Alexis Taylor</li>
<li>djDASHPOINT - '<a href="https://soundcloud.com/djdashpoint/clan-of-xymox-stranger" target="_blank">Clan of Xymox</a>' - Stranger</li>
<li>Orbital - '<a href="https://soundcloud.com/orbital-4/are-you-alive-feat-penelope" target="_blank">Are You Alive?</a>' (feat. Penelope Isles)</li>
<li>Everything But The Girl - '<a href="https://soundcloud.com/everything-but-the-girl-official/missing-todd-terry-club-mix-us" target="_blank">Missing</a>' (Todd Terry Club Mix)</li>
</ol>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-87652115881824403222024-01-05T13:18:00.003+13:002024-01-05T13:18:31.638+13:00Tangency<p><i>Northern Exposure</i> is <a href="https://tvline.com/news/how-to-watch-northern-exposure-online-streaming-amazon-prime-video-1235108490/" target="_blank">streaming in the US</a> in its original aspect ratio, just waiting for the kids to unwrap it. The show was a charmer. It was TV on a scale that will probably not be produced again: big cast, cool location, throwaway narratives. Like <i>The X-Files</i>, <i>Northern Exposure</i> had whimsy. It wasn't afraid to go off on a tangent.</p><p>My new short story <i>The dog</i> is in stores in <i>The Listener </i>and online here:</p>
<p><a class="ebook" href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener/books/short-story-the-dog/AOUOT33BURH7TOHVJKIFBH3CPE/" target="_blank">The Listener</a></p>
<p><i>
Blue Hotel</i> is available here:
</p>
<p><a class="ebook" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNN327YK" target="_blank">Amazon</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9798215118290" target="_blank">Apple Books</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.everand.com/search?query=9798215118290" target="_blank">Everand</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1481975" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/Search?Query=9798215118290" target="_blank">Kobo</a>
</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-12646907928300793542024-01-03T13:55:00.003+13:002024-01-03T13:55:32.278+13:00Hegemony crickets<p>
Maya Phillips on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/movies/superhero-fatigue-marvel.html" target="_blank">movie superhero fatigue</a>:
</p>
<blockquote>
As franchises — particularly the M.C.U., fueled by Disney's multibillion-dollar appetite — continue to grow and threaten ever more, ever greater crossovers, it's becoming more difficult to understand what their endgame is (pun intended) when it comes to their fans. Who wants to watch 30 films and 10 TV series to engage with a franchise that continues to spread itself too thin at the expense of quality filmmaking?
</blockquote>
<p>Short answer: lots. Nevertheless...</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-14844370675813494962023-12-23T13:08:00.005+13:002024-01-05T13:15:46.219+13:00In dreams<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPv0LeOArTo8qHN6CYlSfPMXCigQDLEviWBygDSNA-XFKxTv6yaHsisrRNEEGBj5mJV0_TcbA_tsyzAw5D5pZsvoV9K7Hm3F0i-kDUPZqEO_ypRdZLc65L40u-Iu3_VuUMR9qkEMDlOeXCCS7bpDGCuMA-ucRUHC593T-VXsKPPiklvFKY-McFaZNIKCQ/s1436/the-dog.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1436" data-original-width="1070" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPv0LeOArTo8qHN6CYlSfPMXCigQDLEviWBygDSNA-XFKxTv6yaHsisrRNEEGBj5mJV0_TcbA_tsyzAw5D5pZsvoV9K7Hm3F0i-kDUPZqEO_ypRdZLc65L40u-Iu3_VuUMR9qkEMDlOeXCCS7bpDGCuMA-ucRUHC593T-VXsKPPiklvFKY-McFaZNIKCQ/s320/the-dog.jpg" width="238" /></a></div><br />My new short story <i>The dog</i> is published in the January 2 edition of <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener/books/short-story-the-dog/AOUOT33BURH7TOHVJKIFBH3CPE/" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">The Listener</a> so please enjoy. It features haunting, reckless driving, lots of blood: a typical New Zealand summer.<p></p><p>I'm working on more short stories at the moment even though there are very few outlets for them now. You have to do what you have to do. Links to more <a href="https://chadtaylor.mobi/stories.html">individual short stories</a> and <a href="https://chadtaylor.mobi/story-collections.html">collections</a> on <a href="https://chadtaylor.mobi/index.html">this site</a>.</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-86841335493656091312023-12-21T11:24:00.002+13:002023-12-21T11:24:59.603+13:00AI is the new kitsch<p>Aftermath's Chris Person discusses how 4K remastering is <a href="https://aftermath.site/true-lies-4k-uhd-blu-ray-james-cameron-peter-jackson-park-road-post" target="_blank">marching real-life movies into the uncanny valley</a>:</p>
<blockquote>At times it can look passable in motion, but then you notice something out of the corner of your eye: a thick fold of skin, a framed photo of a child, folders that are too thick at the margins, cheeks that look rendered. It's that familiar dread at the pit of your gut when you spot AI generated imagery, a combination of edges not looking quite right and surfaces that are simultaneously too smooth and too sharp. </blockquote>
<p>The why is games, I guess. Kids raised on console RPGs expect fully CGI environments and mannequin expressions. AI and digital graphics are bringing what I think of as the <a href="https://www.sleek-mag.com/article/pierre-et-gilles/" target="_blank">Pierre et Gilles aesthetic</a> to cinema. Iconic, kitsch, disturbing.</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-84586440810704964512023-12-20T13:52:00.000+13:002023-12-20T13:52:55.381+13:00#BookTok by the numbers<p>
Lindsay Thomas's deep-dive into #BookTok paints a brighter picture of the books and literature community than mainstream critics might expect. To better understand the TikTok channel where "literary criticism – of a particular kind – is currently thriving," Thomas and a colleague analysed content pushed to the For You Page and "top" videos in a "#Booktok" search. Among her observations is that "the physical book, specifically the trade paperback, is the preferred format for reading" on the platform, and there are good reasons why content on a user's For You Page feels so right:</p>
<blockquote>
"... TikTok's emphasis on that middle range of popularity in which content is popular enough to have a good shot, statistically, of being liked, but not so popular that it risks feeling generic – speaks to a core aspect of user experience on the platform. Even when watching a popular video, you don't necessarily have the feeling of participating in mass culture, or in something broadly shared."
</blockquote>
<p>
Full article: <a href="https://post45.org/2023/12/booktok-and-the-rituals-of-recommendation/" target="_blank"><i>BookTok and the Rituals of Recommendation</i></a>.
</p>
Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-69992185646504702022023-12-19T11:08:00.002+13:002023-12-19T11:08:54.451+13:00Here in the twilight: Netflix and a capella<a href="https://www.theverge.com/24003126/netflix-viewing-data-ginny-georgia-witcher" target="_blank">Critics shocked by</a> Netflix's newly revealed viewing numbers reminds me of the '90s when Neilsen started counting record scans and rock fans had to face up to the hard reality of Garth Brooks. Ignorance is bliss.<div><br /></div><div>The <a href="https://variety.com/2023/music/news/manhattan-transfer-final-concert-walt-disney-concert-hall-farewell-interview-1235842969/" target="_blank">Manhattan Transfer have said goodbye</a> but the disco mixes of 'The Twilight Zone' will be with us forever – almost literally (a small selection below). Growing up and going out the MT's second album (1975) was often playing in the background - they were charming and weird and never landed quite right if you were stuck on the whole genre / hit thing which makes them exactly the sort of band you miss: they were part of the landscape.
<ul>
<li>'The Twilight Zone' – <a href="The Manhattan Transfer" target="_blank">Jason Nevins</a></li>
<li>'The Twilight Zone' – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IBquulhALc" target="_blank">Bart & Baker</a></li>
<li>'The Twilight Zone' – <a href="https://soundcloud.com/bartandbaker/5-the-manhattan-transfer-twilight-tone-twilight-zone-wolfgang-lohr-extended-remix-mstd?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing" target="_blank">Wolfgang Lohr Extended Remix</a></li>
<li>'The Twilight Zone' – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2lSo5NbBCo" target="_blank">Disconet Mix</a></li>
</ul></div>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-10922378087963065352023-12-18T14:56:00.003+13:002023-12-18T16:13:54.586+13:00Nevertheless<p><i>Blue Hotel</i> is on the <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/14-12-2023/on-borrowed-crime-a-reading-list-of-local-crime-books" target="_blank">Spinoff summer reading list</a> and <a href="https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/article/good-reading-best-crime-and-thrillers-of-2023/" target="_blank">Good Reading's best of 2023</a> and also here:</p>
<div style="text-align: left;"><a class="ebook" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNN327YK" target="_blank">Amazon</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9798215118290" target="_blank">Apple Books</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.everand.com/search?query=9798215118290" target="_blank">Everand</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Blue-Hotel-Chad-Taylor/9781761280269" target="_blank">Fishpond</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.gardners.com/Search/KeywordAnonymous/eBook?Keyword=9798215118290" target="_blank">Gardners</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/Search?Query=9798215118290" target="_blank">Kobo</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1481975" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.unitybooksauckland.co.nz/shop-new/p/blue-hotel-chad-taylor-9781761280269" target="_blank">Unity Books</a></div>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-50946780373094413602023-12-16T17:21:00.003+13:002023-12-16T17:22:35.923+13:00Now playing: Friends in the Soundcloud<ul>
<li>ODahl - '<a href="https://on.soundcloud.com/VqmSPmWfbdepDEWH6" target="_blank">Big Moon</a>'</li>
<li>Moodblanc -'<a href="https://on.soundcloud.com/5ykT24pu7kLC4vnD9" target="_blank">Good Things In Life</a>' (OHYEAH remix)</li>
<li>Le Boom -'<a href="https://on.soundcloud.com/cTtkAnAn78bvLg5C9" target="_blank">Friday Night</a>' (Banging Edit)</li>
<li>Stealing Sheep - '<a href="https://on.soundcloud.com/sBW3L1Y6Aym561HP8" target="_blank">Not Real</a>' Gwenno remix</li>
<li>Elemn - '<a href="https://on.soundcloud.com/HYDmxysFiwXi6Y8f8" target="_blank">New Future</a>'</li>
</ul>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-88369232933965092192023-12-15T11:52:00.001+13:002023-12-15T14:57:09.942+13:00Goodreads review bombsThe <a href="https://time.com/6397305/cait-corrain-goodreads-review-bomb-authors/" target="_blank">Cait Corran review bombing story</a> arrives on the heels of the <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2023/06/goodreads-amazon-review-bombing-elizabeth-gilbert.html" target="_blank">Elizabeth Gilbert review bombing story</a> earlier this year and all the other <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/books/goodreads-review-bombing.html" target="_blank">review bombing stories before that</a>. This is probably not surprising. The web is filled with fake reviews and there's nothing online that can't be gamed. Manipulating online systems was once an activity reserved for hackers but in recent years it feels like such behaviour has become the principal motivation for even non-technical users. People used to log in to make themselves heard; now they do it to influence the result. Whether it's online polls or user reviews, you hit the button to make a difference.<div><br /></div><div>And AI will <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jul/15/fake-reviews-ai-artificial-intelligence-hotels-restaurants-products" target="_blank">make things worse</a>. And that assumes you believe in the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140708-when-crowd-wisdom-goes-wrong" target="_blank">wisdom of crowds</a> in the first place, rather than placing your faith in fewer critics whose position you know.</div><div><br /></div><div>Such controversy around writers feels like a fever that never breaks. However fantastic it must be for readers to have that level of interest in your work, the pace of such fandom is cautionary. The processes around fiction should move ... slowly. The work can be fast. The thinking takes time.</div>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-3460695355265843862023-12-14T07:34:00.004+13:002023-12-14T07:39:33.783+13:00Mubi and the gift of cinema<p>I received a Mubi subscription for my birthday and it's working out really well. In two weeks I dialled up <i>Ninjababy</i>, <i>Zero Fucks Given</i>, <i>Actual People</i> and <i>Aloners</i>; and the older <i>A Very Curious Girl</i>, <i>Demonlover</i> and <i>Irma Vep</i>. Millennial film good! The school reads like emotionally less certain slacker cinema, with parents. They've made me enjoy movies again. The soundtracks, too, touch on a lot of things in my collection. Harmonia is everywhere. And Olivier Assayas has dated better than one might have expected. His 1996 <i>Irma Vep</i> is a study for the 2022 TV version. But mostly I've enjoyed watching the kids: movies not for me made by people I don't know. It's refreshing. The lower production values are a visual relief.</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-7953159551006904482023-12-13T11:48:00.003+13:002023-12-13T11:49:42.523+13:00Updates<p>I should probably write more about my writing but as I've said in the past, being online is a break from writing for me. I surf for movies and images and music and leave the writing on notebooks and various machines. Nevertheless I have written a great deal about the thing that consumes me on this blog, Marginalia, so it's been moved a little closer to my author site now. Same address, new navigation. My thanks to Klaus Schneider for knocking this up between scuba and hang gliding on the Mount. If you need an IT guy who despises IT, Klaus is your man.</p><p>Last month I finished a draft and shelved it in lieu of any, uh, progress on the business side of things. Working on something new. Always working on something new.</p><p>I have a new short story coming up in the Listener for Christmas. Spoiler: it's not summery.</p><p>A digital edition of <i>Blue Hotel</i> is now available internationally. Links below.</p>
<p><a class="ebook" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNN327YK" target="_blank">Amazon</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9798215118290" target="_blank">Apple Books</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.everand.com/search?query=9798215118290" target="_blank">Everand</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1481975" target="_blank">Smashwords</a>
<a class="ebook" href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/Search?Query=9798215118290" target="_blank">Kobo</a>
</p>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432848491481898318.post-26036567507361006012023-12-03T01:01:00.000+13:002023-12-03T01:03:49.479+13:00Scrapbook<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeUEbotWkOzZBIeh94FbncteycxvWOH8oZ9hyphenhypheneULfnB-IKxgs18BF7Vqb87K0NQ458e-_Peho0qwzyiLSGIHYcpx0xhlZOUdsIvbg4-WW1uB3rkajhunIyRPTkbxZBYkMImjT0Bi2q9gRHGUfHcj5YtCBEwgDaGcdHAQe9SEDKK3DGSITCni4K7CRCtm5L/s2000/Cara-De-Angelis.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1457" data-original-width="2000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeUEbotWkOzZBIeh94FbncteycxvWOH8oZ9hyphenhypheneULfnB-IKxgs18BF7Vqb87K0NQ458e-_Peho0qwzyiLSGIHYcpx0xhlZOUdsIvbg4-WW1uB3rkajhunIyRPTkbxZBYkMImjT0Bi2q9gRHGUfHcj5YtCBEwgDaGcdHAQe9SEDKK3DGSITCni4K7CRCtm5L/s400/Cara-De-Angelis.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCWshG0QtxoTm5ql10SNCr5bKoVGwpwUKQTCZozdjr9VxWS0eCPxJI4weBcpD2bMnsUNRNMZ-11qX332fpPv4XRRtaJnUWRVQHnxSvct4jog328r6dKXBGJV7qSQCdHjgtdOUV8EwqJh9oJf20eHKuMAAK1igpkVmLk50O05PEYrnTOd_3hNGLzJEaGkke/s1000/edward%20hopper.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="690" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCWshG0QtxoTm5ql10SNCr5bKoVGwpwUKQTCZozdjr9VxWS0eCPxJI4weBcpD2bMnsUNRNMZ-11qX332fpPv4XRRtaJnUWRVQHnxSvct4jog328r6dKXBGJV7qSQCdHjgtdOUV8EwqJh9oJf20eHKuMAAK1igpkVmLk50O05PEYrnTOd_3hNGLzJEaGkke/s400/edward%20hopper.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Cara DeAngelis - <i>Woman with Roadkill IV</i>; Edward Hopper - <i>Stairway at 48 Rue de Lille, Paris.</i></div></div></div>Chad Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07868991266873391804noreply@blogger.com