potatotalksculture - Tumblr blog

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Essay: The fear of missing out?

Recently I’ve watched a video essay by one of my YouTubers of choice - Jacob Geller. In his video he talks about art that was made for no one.[1] One of the art works he mentions is a creation by Michael Heizer that took a lot of effort, cost a lot of money and is accessible to general public in a harshly restricted way. It also changed a great part of the natural landscape of the Nevada desert, where this artwork - City - is placed.

The reflection about the impact of Heizer’s works on the environment and also the politics of human handling of it stuck with me. Heizer often takes some natural resources to create he’s pieces, and that in huge amounts. For Levitated Mass, displayed in Los Angeles County Museum of Art, displaced a 340-ton boulder from Stone Valley Quarry to LA.[2] For Double Negative, a work one can see in the Nevada desert, he displaced 244.000 tons of natural material to create a void space in a piece of a rock.[3]

I could go on in my research. I could read up on his hubris and ego. I could look up the private donors who made those and other creations possible. I could jump down the rabbit whole of papers on the relationship between mankind and nature and capitalism and exploitation and …

But I’m on a train for a weekend get away. I like traveling by train. The soft rocking of the vehicle while passing through outskirts and woods and fields. I’d rather look out a window than concentrate on the screen of my phone, while I write this. I don’t want to miss what’s outside the window. I don’t want to run out of time to research Michael Heizers Art and the politics behind it.

Sources:

[1] Jacob Geller. Art for No One.

[2] Wiki

[3] Wiki

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: Barbie has already been robbed during the nominations. Now it’s been robbed even more.

I assume it’s common knowledge by now that Oscars are not about art, at least not in the first place. So when I look at the politics of the awarded, I worry. Oppenheimer is good, no questions asked. What I worry about is the politics of not giving an Oscar to Killers of the Flower Moon at all. Through that the Academy kind of admits that it doesn’t care about Native Americans and their story. They care about Mariupol, but doesn't one dare talk about Gaza. They care about gazing at women much less than about taking a quick, light-hearted look at their psyche. That’s sad and irritating.

What increases my discontent is the amount of statuettes Poor Things has left the ceremony with. And I’m not gonna moralize about the sexuality of a child, I’m not a Victorian lady… I’m rather wondering about all the similarities between Yorgos Lanthimos’ film and Greta Gerwing’s film. Both staring a well known woman, who’s also a co-producer of the respective piece. The protagonist of each film is what seems to be a grown ass lady, who differs from the common understanding of “normal” and “suited for a society” in one way or other. Both Barbie and Poor Things are visually stunning.

The categories in which both films were nominated are:

best picture

supporting actor (where it was kind of obvious it’s gonna be Robert Downey Jr., but I was holding onto the glimmer of hope it’s gonna be Ryan Gosling, so that the Academy can say “Hey, we awarded this pink movie something! Sure, it’s for the male supporting role in a very feminine movie, but we awarded it something!)

adapted screenplay

costume design

production design

The only two categories in which Barbie was nominated and Poor Things wasn’t, are:

actress in a supporting role

original song (with “What Was I Made For?” and “I’m Just Ken”)

Which scores it the total of 8 nominations in 7 categories.

Meanwhile Poor Things scored 11 nominations all together. It was nominated, except for the already mentioned, for:

actress in a leading role

cinematography

directing

editing

makeup and hairstyling

original score

For some perspectve: Oppenheimer got nominated in 13 categories.

What I'm trying to say here, is that it was understandable for me that Barbie got robbed cuz it's too entertaining, too pink, too commercial for the Academy. It wasn't the greatest production of the year. But it was an event! And just because of that it's already earned a very special place in the cultural history of the western world. I'd be interested to know how much of the commercial success of Oppenheimer was carried by Barbie and the other way around. The double-feature-premiere was a worldwide event of a scale of its own. Meanwhile Poor Things showed up rather late to the party. It's not a multiplex film. It's a Mubi film. It's artsy. It's different. It's also a story about women's sexuality written and directed by a dude, based on a novel by a dude. And the Academy likes it more than a story by women for women about what it's like to be a women, which also allows it to prove how much they care about Art. AKA how pretentious they are. That's my beef.

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: I am petitioning for the term “androgynous Spock-core aesthetic” and the related term “Spock-core sexuality” to be included in the modern discourse of any discipline that is preoccupied with a field of sexuality, erotica, literature, psychology, sociology or, to cast a wide net, culture or philosophy.

Source of the term: Contrapoints “Twilight”

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: Just watched the latest video essay by Shaun. Unfortunately, many good points. My anxiety is spiking.

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: Listening to Nick Cave is not even a mood. It’s a mass.

[potatotalksculture]

The Hanged Man. Art by Nicolas Bruno, from The Somnia Tarot.

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: Whenever I scroll through the endless vendors list to enable cookies collection, even if someone’s legitimately interested in them, I am reminded that freedom, especially the freedom to privacy, is something one works on and for every day. In the time we live in, when information, especially data, became a currency with unspecified value, a life of a person as a phenomena becomes immeasurably valuable.

A worth of a person measured by the capitalistic forces is finite, as one can be mentally or literally worked to death. But the information one can provide about themselves can be a source for endless research. Especially if accounted for the changes a person undergoes though their lifetime.

[potatotalksculture]

CONTROL for the newbies

[SPOILERS for the video games: Control, Firewatch below.]

CONTROL - a video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by 505 Games - introduced me to RTX. I enjoyed the mesmerizing reflections, the sharp lights, the intense colors...

...while watching my partner navigate through the Federal Bureau of Control as Jessie. From the beginning till the end I've accompanied him as a sort of co-pilot. Together we were theorizing about the lore of the game and figuring out the next steps. Every now and then I was googling solutions for side missions, while my partner was fighting yet another wave of Hiss possessed agents.

Back then I was a newbie. I had to look at my controller to find the right buttons, while playing walking simulators. Whenever I tried using the keyboard, I kept hitting the wrong key. Only this has almost always led to a frustration-induced rage-quitting. I am also anything but a horror fan. I scare easily. I can't deal well with anxiety or stress. I've almost quit playing Firewatch, cuz I couldn't easily stomach the tension caused by playing a first-person walking simulator in an seemingly abandoned open world filled with mysteries. In a horror movie, I'd be the girl who's not even going on the camping trip in the woods. I'd stay at home and miss all the murderous fun!

But over time I've grown as a gamer girl. I developed a muscle memory for most of the important keys. I rage quit less. Sometimes I even relay the controls on different parts of the cool gaming mouse I own! And as my skills were developing, so was my curiosity for different game genres. I wanted to get good at shooters! Tiny Tina was a start, but since our campaign gets together every blue moon, I needed something else, a single player. I kept coming back to Control: a game I liked, a plot I knew (so I could deal with the tension. almost).

I gave it a try a while back. I played it on my own, first with headphones on, later with audio on a speaker, as the sound design was giving me shivers. (What can I say, I'm susceptible to this way of creating an atmosphere.) Even with the headphones off, I was experiencing a strong feeling of being lost in a hostile environment. This emotional state was quite probably being enhanced by my lacking walking skill. Hitting QWAS and looking around with the cursor at the same time was still too complex for me. I was also set on not using any aim assist or other helping mechanism, which was pretty stubborn on my part.

In the face of all those circumstances, it seems almost miraculous that I've made it to the first boss fight. It was a long and frustrating way there. I've almost rage quit a few times, when after a short break I was getting back at it. I was starting to have fun! But Tommasi was my end. Aiming, shooting, launching, running, crouching, going up and down the stairs... all while being attacked not only by the boss, but also by his Hiss possessed minions? That was too much. I've left defeated. For a while...

Now, after playing some other games with a keyboard and a mouse and feeling pretty confident about not mixing up W with an E in a fight or flight situation, I am getting back at it! I will give Control another try. And I hope to share my experience here, as almost every game I play feels engaging enough the write about it.

FBC, here I come!

[potatotalksculture]

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: Yesterday was a long and intense day, so today I’m starting with a cup of coffee on the sofa while watching a video essay. Little did I know that Rowan Ellis absolutely nailed the atmosphere of a zoom meeting. I kept losing focus every 60s and kept looking for other things to do. Her character of Karen, who struggles to pronounce “LGBTQ+” or “LGBTQAI+” every time she need to say it, is brilliant!

Watch it too:

[potatotalksculture]

space phase

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: If I want to watch the new season of Doctor Who but stopped watching sometime while Peter Capaldi was the Doctor, so I need to watch everything I’ve missed?

Like, as far as I remember there was little overlaps between seasons. There might be some comments and jokes I won’t get. I might not know why the equivalent of a severed hand in a box is so important. I might be unfamiliar with some monsters or side characters inserted into the narrative in the previous seasons.

To be honest, I’d probably have to rewatch all the Capaldi-episodes as well. All I remember is the horrible “what happens to people after they get cremated” episode and the Doctor riding a tank while playing an e-guitar…

edit: But really, if you’ve watched all the episodes since Capaldi took over, please share your opinion on that. I’d be super grateful.

[potatotalksculture]

Was it supposed to look like a DW x Disco Elysium crossover?

All the fics I can imagine…

♬ Masterpiece - Madonna ♬

[potatotalksculture]

The brave new world of keyboard gaming

It's been something over 2 years since I got into video games. Most of the games I've played since, I've played with a controller.

My partner got me into games. We played a few highly frustrating hours of Octodad. I tried my hand at Magicka till we've reached the boss my partner couldn't fight alone and I wasn't of much help because I was still struggling to remember which button does what and where is it on the controller. Then some day he showed me The Stanley Parable and I have lost my mind, played it through a couple of times, revived my love for ontology, got the Ultra Deluxe on his Steam account, played through the Ultra Deluxe, showed it to all my friends and family, got a gaming PC, my own Steam and Humble Bundle account. And there I was. Still only using a controller.

Portal? Controller.

Portal 2? Controller, till I got to this one chamber where I was trying to get a pixel perfect jump for two days and then I switched to mouse and keyboard to spent another two day in the same chamber until I made the jump. And according to the internet there is no glitch there, it's just an asshole of a chamber.

Hades? 200+ hours and counting, controller only.

Fez? Controller.

Antichamber? Controller.

And so on until I watched my partner play Control. It is a beautiful game with an interesting story. And it's not too scary for me. (I quit playing Soma at the easy mode cuz the screen distortions freaked me out too much.) It also helps my easily frightened little soul to know how the games looks like from the beginning to the end, and if there are any jump scares. And Control we kind of played in coop: My partner was playing and I was watching and googling walkthroughs for the parts we couldn't figure out together. It was fun few days. And now I know what to expect.

I started playing it with a controller and it was miserable. So I switched to keyboard and kept pressing E instead of W and got frustrated pretty quickly. So I've decided to use the controller for walking and exploring, but then the fights were impossible to get through even with aim assist. Nothing can aim like a mouse. So I decided to use this game to learn how to play with keyboard and mouse only. Was it a good idea? No. I've reached the final boss and after losing to him for a few days, even with the aim assist on, I gave up. For now...

Disco Elysium helped me in getting the gist of making my character walk without using a game pad. The slow pacing helped, of course. (And oh, the trumpets...)

So we arrive in today's world. A friend told me about Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and how it could be great game we can all play together without leaving the comfort of one own home. Sounds great to me! I got the game, I got overwhelmed by the stats in character creation, I got over it, I did a trial run cooping with my partner only. It was fun!

Now I'm a Lvl 8 spore warden with a shroomy companion following me everywhere and hurting the enemies with its farts. I'm in. Brave new world of keyboard and mouse, here I come!

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet:

this place might be right for this

breaths deeply in

SHOUTS AT TOP OF THE LUNGS:

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THE TAYLOR SWIFT PHENOMENON TO ME?!

I have listend to some of her music. I have watched Miss America. I am getting a shitload of suggested content about her on all my social media. I know she’s big. But why? I might put together some unpopular opinion post about this topic but before that I’d really like someone to name other arguments for her being a miss big thing than her music is nice and she’s blond, skinny, white and classically pretty. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[potatotalksculture]

Potato Tweet: Praise to Broey Deschanel for criticizing the “women monologue” from the Barbie movie. Yes, it is an important piece of the movie and yes, it has moved a lot of people to reflect upon women’s situation in a patriarchal society. BUT ALSO it is flat! It’s a distillate of a lot of pop femist slogans that create snaps. It’s good and it’s flat at the same time.

[potatotalksculture]

Another though regarding Disco Elysium

You know what makes Disco Elysium so great? You think you know? Do you wanna know?!

Ok, it's gonna be a lot of things. Some are the same for different people, some are completely different and some are just similar. It's a complex game with a lot of story lines, touching upon many discourses. Once you're hooked, you're gonna find something for yourself.

What I keep thinking about in regard to Disco Elysium lately is that it's like a very good book. A novel. Long novel printed and bound into a thick book. You can hear the rustling of the paper, you can feel the porous structure of the pages under your finders, you can smell the dust and ink mixed together. But you also hear voices. Just as the main character hears them. You know he's a bit crazy. And very much cursed, fighing his furies, looking for his past even though he's inner voice is telling him that it is everything but a good idea. You're a man of law and justice but you keep feeling guilty. You are conflicted, confused, scared, on the brim of ending it all...

And around you is a whole world of other characters who seem so very real. Each of them has a story to tell. A story that has litte or nothing to do with your quest. You just collect their stories while looking for answers. Every character in Disco Elysium has some baggage, they are all broken is some way or other. And the reason for that is the system they are living in, their political believes, their passion. Politics is always in the background, luring around the corner, rolling its wheels, indifferent to people's lots.

You know what it all reminds me of? Dostoevsky. The realism with some magical realism sprinkled on it. The politics and the critic of it in its every shape of form. A deep look at the human condition. Showing people as complex, deeply flawed creatures that we are. And above it all: the existentialism. Each choice you make has a consequence. You are alone in the world.

I will probably never stop thinking about this game.