I’ve been discovering Bardcore, a new subgenre of music (April 2020) that takes modern songs and performs them in a Medieval style. I created this video of a Medieval remix of this 90’s club hit ‘What is Love’ by Haddaway.
Cornelius Link (the originator of the genre) crafted and performed a brilliant Bardcore version of this Diabolically catchy song. Hildegard von Blingin’ wrote an inspired lyrics and took the Cornelius’ performance to the next level with her beautiful voice. But I felt their videos could, “use more cowbell.” They inspired me to relearn how to use After Effects and Premier, which I hadn’t touched in almost two decades. I was as rusty as chainmail left in a bog.
LYRICS: What is love? Lady thou woundest, thou woundest, mine heart. Oh I know not whither thou art, or wherefore thou tearest us apart If ever thou beest mine, giv’st me a sign What is love? Lady thou woundest, thou woundest, mine heart. I know not what can granted be, for doth not my freedom rest with thee? What shall remain if we are twain? Alack, I beseech What is love? Lady thou woundest, thou woundest, mine heart.
In the Star Trek universe, almost all of the Federation’s capital ships have one universal feature, the ‘Saucer Section’. This is often the main hull of the vessel, with some designs like the Miranda, NX, and Faraday class having no secondary-hull at all..
But why a saucer-shaped disk?
What if the disk shape wasn’t just aesthetic but had a practical purpose. What if the internal structure of the disk was spinning and producing artificial gravity through centripetal force?
Schematics and blueprints created of the USS Enterprise and other ship designs have detailed drawings of the internal decks of the saucer section and no, my theory is not-canon. Pitty.
If perhaps if they ever do a series set before the ‘Enterprise’ timeline, a pre-prequel, they could show a centrifuge-disk design in use on Starfleet vessels before they developed ‘gravity plating’ technology? Why would starship designers keep that aesthetic after it served any practical purpose? For the same reason parts of a ship are still called the ‘bridge’ and ‘forecastle’; Tradition.
There’s been a lot of arguments about comparing US infection statistics versus other countries such as “You can’t compare the US because we have more people” or “We test more so we have more cases” all of which are true. But here are 3 charts normalized per million and per 1000’s of tests. So this is as close to apples to apples as you’re going to get.
This is where we are as of July 12, 2020.
This is where we’d like to be: less cases with the same number of tests
This is where every country wants to be: almost no cases.
“Confession means a lesser punishment, denial means guilt.” – a Chinese Communist Quote
‘Cancel Culture’ is nothing new. At the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) teachers, civic leaders, artists, musicians, actors, and common farmers, were rounded up by the mob and forced to ‘confess’ their sins against Communism. These ‘Struggle Sessions‘ were held publically and the victims were often tortured, made to wear signs professing their guilt, and humiliated in front of their town and peers.
Soon the accused started giving up all kinds of information and examples of crimes that they MIGHT have committed, implicating anybody they knew, hoping that information would appease the mob. Before the Cultural Revolution ended (with the death of Mao), it’s estimated over 10-20 million were imprisoned in ‘reeducation camps’ and millions would die.
Today we see something eerily similar to the Chinese Struggle Sessions. These celebrities created the above online video to proactively signal their virtue to the cultural mob.
Or like the progressive Mayor of Minneapolis, who confessed to his ‘whiteness’. He most certainly is also guilty of ineffectual and indecisive leadership. But nobody cared. A mob will never forgive.
Today there is no need for Mao. Social Media is the Mao in all of us.
A number of Internet theories and memes have cropped up since the death of George Floyd attempting to question the legitimacy and identity of the cops who were involved, as by questioning visual details in the images of the arrest.
The meme below was shared by a friend who wanted to know if it could be true? I looked for images of Minneapolis Police vehicles and indeed the only images I could find were those also used in the meme. But I noticed that the lower door of the Police vehicles looked different than the vehicle in the George Floyd arrest. After searching for photos of the 2020 model Ford Explorer, we can see that Ford has changed the design of the rear hatch allowing for a broad area below the license plate to place a graphic text decals. In 2019 and older model Ford Explorers have the door handle directly below license plate which would make it impossible to apply a decal across the area without cutting it off in the middle.
I do not know the origin of this compiled-photo meme or whether it was created with malicious or innocent intent. But should you come across it, please share this article to debunk it.
LARPers wearing festive team uniforms in a theme airsoft game.
Jonathan Evans and Samantha Sutton wrote that Hawaiian shirts have become a symbol of White Supremacy. This should be a laughable article in The Onion or Babylon Bee, but it’s not satire. These were articles written for ‘In-Style Magazine’ and ‘Esquire’ (granted hardly an exemplar of investigative journalism). Instead, they are examples of ironic-fashion and media fear-mongering.
Hawaiian or Aloha shirts are an icon of casual menswear for over a half-century. Created by in the 1920s by Japanese-Americans in Honolulu, HI these shirts were brought back to the mainland by returning tourists and military servicemen stationed there. In the 1950’s they gained widespread popularity in American culture swinging between mainstream and kitsch.
In the early 2000s, private military contractors and state-department security details adopted casual shirts in their attempts to draw less attention to themselves, while working overseas. First-person-shooter game designers incorporated this shirt into games like MaxPayne 3.
Flash forward to tumultuous spring of 2020, after two months of COVID-19 lockdown. Peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis turned into riots and looting in many cities throughout the country. A handful of armed individuals in tactical gear showed up to defend both small businesses from looters, and to protect peaceful protesters from violent rioters. The journalists provide no photos of any of them wearing Hawaiian shirts.
There are photos of a handful of men (3 in the articles) wearing Hawaiian shirts at the earlier ReOpen ‘protests’ in New Hampshire and Texas. Which given the more relaxed context of these events and a wide range of attire, the shirt choice seems more festive juxtaposition than a political statement. Yet some journalists insist on portraying the shirt as a symbol of some nefarious agenda.
Jonathan Evans admits, “I am no scholar of the alt-right or the anti-government fringe” yet feels justified in making definitive assertions about their chosen uniform. He and Samantha made labored connections between Hawaiian shirts, lockdown protesters, 2A supporters, preppers/survivalists, and white nationalists. In the minute overlap of those different circles, they have created a new bugbear: the racist Hawaiian Shirt.
There is much to be afraid of today with a wave of riots and looting that we haven’t seen since the 1990s L.A. riots. The news media has a vested interest in making people alarmed, like the hoax of the ‘ok’ hand symbol. Fear drives clicks and clicks drive ad payments.
Hawaiian shirts are and should always mean only one thing: aloha. If the media chooses to portray symbols of love and welcome as racist, then it’s not improbable to see this rumor next…
