Content Tagged “culture”
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The First Captain We Lose
The news is everywhere that Patrick Stewart has died. This is a hard time for us Trekkies from back in the day. Walter Koenig just died last Sunday. It strikes me that Stewart is the first Star Trek captain we have lost. That’s a major part of my childhood that’s gone. I certainly did not have it on my bingo card that William Shatner would outlive Patrick Stewart.
I saw Stewart on stage in London once, playing Shakespeare. It was a magical evening. What makes me sad the most about him dying now, I think, is that he left Trekkies on such a sour note with Star Trek: Picard. That series was such a horrible decision all around. Looking back at it, it is almost completely unredeemable. And by all accounts, Stewart had a major hand in how that turned out. That just saddens me. Without that show, all my memories of Patrick Stewart would be good ones.
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The Decline of Western Video Games & Movies
The Critical Drinker is right here when he points out that the demise of Bioware is more than a classic case of “go woke, go broke”, although that is of course part of it. As he correctly analyses, the Western video game industry is falling apart for the same reason that Hollywood is: For decades now, both have prioritised technology — and the way a movie, TV show or game looks — over its story. They have failed to understand that not looks is what makes a fiction engaging, but the story. That doesn’t mean the story isn’t enhanced by looks, but everything inevitably falls apart if your story is bad in the first place. And of course, if you already have bad writing, it doesn’t help if you further foul it up with condescending political messaging nobody enjoys.
Bioware was hit especially hard by this, because story was essential to their success. Their legendary games all set themselves apart by their story first and foremost. They knew this. But still they got swept up in the idea that better technology would make for a better game no matter what and they hired writers that didn’t prioritise what was fun for players, but what they wanted to proselytise about. And they paid the price. The same thing is happening all over the creative industries as we speak.
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→ Muse fans point out the irony as band lose social media name to AI assistant, The Independent
Hmmm … it’s almost as if most commercial music is actually an entertainment product meant to sell well instead of legitimate social commentary …
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→ “Today, September 8, 2026 marks the 60th anniversary of Star Trek’s premiere on American network television”, Michael Okuda on X
Star Trek turns 60 today. The franchise’s social media accounts have been hyping this up constantly for months now and there are many collaborations with all kinds of companies, trying to sell Star Trek-themed products that are mostly junk. In stark contrast to this forced celebratory bullshit, the anniversary of my favourite TV franchise just fills me with sadness, since any Star Trek produced since 2005 has become progressively worse, with “Starfleet Academy“ being an absolute farce from the very beginning and the one show still in production, “Strange New Worlds”, decending into utter silliness like musical and muppet episodes. It all makes me weary and sad and the only thing I am wishing for at this point is that they’ll finally let the mutilated corpse of this franchise rest. But that won’t ever happen, because too many people’s careers depend on continuing this disgraceful charade.
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The Unbalanced Centrifuge
So, I watched Project Hail Mary last night. Best movie I’ve seen in ages. What a spirited, funny but also very tense ride! I loved it!
One of the funniest bits was my wife getting annoyed at the main character, who like her is a biologist, loading a centrifuge. The dude has two samples and puts them right next to each other in the centrifuge, instead of opposite each other to balance out the centrifugal forces — as any real scientist would do. It annoyed her so much that, after waking up this morning, the first thing she did — from bed, mind you — was to go on the internet to find out if she was the only person who noticed this. Of course, she wasn’t. There are quite a few annoyed biologists and chemists out there.
Yeah — the unbalanced centrifuge took me totally out of the movie. I won’t say it ruined the movie for me but the first thing I did when I got home was search for someone else grumbling about this. He had two tubes! I can understand not balancing it when you have one tube, who among us hasn’t done that? But when you have two tubes and you don’t balance them? That’s crazy.
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Black Library Kills Its Website
Backing up my past Black Library purchasesThe enshittification of all things Warhammer continues, as Games Workshop has decided to close the website of its publishing arm Black Library and replace it with a mobile app. This means an end to the sale of DRM-free ebooks on their site. You have until the morning of 18 March to buy the last of these from the current offerings on the site. And then you have until the morning of 31 August to download your past purchases. So better back up what you bought there in the past as soon as possible. I just did that myself.
I am with most of the internet in that I see this as a pure move towards bigger lock-in by GW and away from what their customers actually want. I will definitely not be using their app. I've been desperately trying to use less apps for years.
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It's Dead, Jim
I think I'm with The Drinker here: Star Trek needs to die. We had a good run there for a while, but it seems that all good things must come to an end. These Kurtzman shows are horrible. They are dumb, one-dimensional and an obvious attempt to plaster over slop writing by appealing to the political Zeitgeist. Kurtzman and his team are all about showing how good and decent they are, while being completely oblivious to their own utter incompetence.
As Roger Avery said on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience:
Kurtzman's production company is called Secret Hideout. And, man, he's gonna need a secret hideout after what he's done to Star Trek!
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Angela Collier on “Star Trek: Picard”
I’ve written a lot about how Star Trek: Picard is a horrible show — yes, all three seasons of it — and how I regret watching even a single minute of it. So, I’m not going to get into this again here.
Rather than doing that, I want to direct your attention to this very good video by Angela Collier, who I recently discovered from several videos she did on ChatGPT. As it turns out, not only does she have a PhD in astrophysics, she also got into science because of TNG and is totally happy to nerd out for four hours about Star Trek. I agree with a lot of what she says in this video. It’s definitely worth a watch!
→ Angela Collier: How Star Trek: Picard Ruins Star Trek
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Algo Prison Blues
Just revisiting this old gem from No Agenda. Still cracks me up.
🎵 No Agenda: Algo Prison Blues
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Give Me Telecasters, Let Them Rock (Part 2)
I recently discovered The Steel Woods, a band I had never heard about before and whose music is brilliant and exactly what I need right now.
→ Give Me Telecasters, Let Them Rock (Part 1)
Through his association with The Steel Woods, I’ve discovered another outlaw country music artist called Cody Jinks. He used to front a metal band before he gave that up to play the music of his youth and find success. He released his first full album in 2010 and his tenth album was just released.
Being from Fort Worth, he has the Texas accent I enjoy very much. That accent is one of the reasons I’ve listened to an absolute shit-ton of Billy Joe Shaver over the last few years. That and Shaver’s excellent songwriting. Cody Jinks sees himself in the tradition of Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash and he certainly lives up to those high ideals. His songwriting rivals Billy Joe’s, which is about as good as it gets this side of Bob Dylan. And his Telecaster absolutely slaps. Plus, that backing band of his, the Tonedeaf Hippies, are a thing to behold. His lyrics are as intelligent as the stuff The Steel Woods are rocking. And, as an added bonus, Jinks’ vocal range is a lot more along my usual preferences. And what a voice he has!
They guy looks more like a metal or hard rock guitarist than a country frontman, but he definitely has the country in his blood. You can’t fake it. Not like that. I just wish there were more live shows of his on the web. Hell, if we ever get concerts again and this guy comes anywhere near Germany, I’m there in a heartbeat. Just listen to this guy…
→ Cody Jinks – Loud and Heavy (Adobe Sessions Unplugged)
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Give Me Telecasters, Let Them Rock (Part 1)
I’ve always liked country music. Ever since I spent a year living in the backwoods of Queensland, Australia in the year of 2000, country music has been as much part of my being as the cowboy hats I’ve been wearing ever since. Slim Dusty, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Billy Joe Shaver and, of course, Johnny Cash, have shaped my understanding of a world away from the city (where I grew up until I was 18). These men have shaped my understanding of what it means to be a man. As I grow older, and as my respect for most of my other musical heroes and the things they stand for is waning among the insanities of the pandemic, I find myself turning more and more towards country music.
→ See my previous post on Van Morrison and the absence of rebels in today’s music
I enjoy the tell-it-as-it-is lyrics and musical simplicity of country in a time where everybody seems to turn out to be a hypocrite lying through their teeth. Especially outlaw country has always inspired me with its I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-your-mainstream-opinion attitude. This attitude is the reason for the outlaws part of the Linux Outlaws name. And it’s an attitude that is especially needed in these times where everyone seems to agree with everything the talking heads on TV are saying. I want more country in my life right now. Down-to-earth lyrics, a couple of Telecasters cranked through a very loud amp, a bass and a drumkit and let ’er rip!
So I’m always on the lookout for some good new country to listen to. That’s why my interest was piqued immediately when I recently read a story somewhere about this southern country band going through some tough times. They have just released a new album, even though their band leader and song writer had died earlier in the year. The story was accompanied by a photo of some seriously cool looking dudes of about my age in serious hats and packing serious Telecaster action. I was sure, based on the picture alone, that I would like these guys.
And indeed, I love these guys. They are called The Steel Woods and they are amazing. They have the most powerful country rock sound I’ve heard in ages. I love their southern heritage and even though their singer has a vocal range that’s a lot higher than the stuff I usually prefer, his voice is extremely captivating. And their lyrics are extremely intelligent, too. I listened to their three albums in one sitting and one of the songs made me flat out cry. These dudes are the real deal. They are amazing. I’m very glad I found their music.
Wherever you are now, Rowdy, rest in peace. And thank you for these wonderful songs! I hope the rest of the band can continue to do them justice and will record many, many more in your memory.
→ The Steel Woods – Rock That Says My Name (Live in Memphis, TN)
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Where Have All the Rebels Gone?
I’ve recently stopped listening to a lot of the music I’ve previously enjoyed. I don’t feel it’s currently the right time for Bruce Springsteen to sing about the travails of the working class or for metal bands to innocently explain some historic battle to me. Instead, I’ve been listening a lot to Merle Haggard, Billy Joe Shaver, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. What do all of these artists have in common? They are almost incessantly pissed off. Which I feel fits the situation we’ve been in for the last year quite well.
Van Morrison has become a particular favourite. The man’s always been weird and abrasive – as anyone who’s ever been to one of his concerts knows. Hell, he once wrote a complete album of unreleasable music because his record company fucked him over. And Van Morrison, of all people, is the only established musician I can find, who’s actually speaking out against the things going wrong right now. Van Morrison, of all people, the small, quiet blues man, is suddenly the most punk of the group.
On his latest album with the quirky meta name Latest Record Project – Volume 1, there’s as song called Where Have All the Rebels Gone? And in that song, Van puts to music exactly what I have been asking myself for over a year now:
Where have all the rebels gone?
Hiding behind computer screens
Where’s the spirit, where’s the soul?
Where have all the rebels gone?Why don’t they come out of the woodwork now?
One for the money, two for the show
It’s not very rock and roll
Where have all the rebels gone?Where have all the rebels gone?
Waiting for someone else to make a move
Why are they sitting on the fence?
Well, it’s some kind of pretence
They’re not saying much at all
Where have all the rebels gone?Where they really all that tough?
Or was it just a PR stunt?→ Van Morrison: Latest Record Project – Volume 1