whatifsandspheres

[whatifsandspheres]

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMX05voPNCy/

[whatifsandspheres]

Yet again, more proof that capitalism was never about "freedom" or "small government".

[whatifsandspheres]

[whatifsandspheres]

It's not about the mixtape, either. *I* didn't lose the mixtape. Anyone can still go out and get tapes and record on them. When I was old enough to start making mixtapes, I was already being sold CD formats. We were some of the last in the generation to be able to even understand the logic and culture of it all. It's about how it wasn't called piracy at all. Or even bootleg. None of that. It just was. Sometimes even the quality wasn't that bad considering you could do it straight from the stereo right onto the tape. But the marketing and stigma of rebranding something as "less expensive" and therefore "less valuable," sure did work on a lot of people. The world was flooded with CDs. A bunch of garbage plastic that not only tended to have something most people didn't want or need, but couldn't even be reformatted to be written over. *"Better"* *"Newer"* Nobody was trying to discourage people from making mixtapes by threatening legal incarceration or fines. Granted that you didn't sell the media, you could record TV shows with a VHS, no problem. It was beginning to become an issue. The capitalists saw money they weren't earning, not money they were losing. They saw that a market could emerge that they couldn't take for themselves so they would rather destroy it. For a while there we even had Tivo? I didn't, but it was the equivalent of automatically recording your TV to watch later. This was encouraging for people who had work or school and even for the ones who were already paying for Cable TV but weren't able to catch their shows and weren't getting their money's worth. Streaming now isn't free. Youtube barely functions the way it did, but both streaming and YouTube were once free. The marketing and ads weren't in your face, the agreements made with the sponsors and advertisers were done without needing to commit to blatant in-your-face ads. Just like with broadcast syndicated television for free, ads were played, but you could easily change the channel or even have a show recorded to cut out the ads. The advertisers were still getting their contract agreements met by the broadcasters, and vice versa. But it wasn't enough. It had to come to this. "Wait until the ad is over," bullshit. Pay-per-view and cable cost almost as much as Netflix and other streaming platforms, or less, except that now you get less of a selection of media and the regulations for neutrality and sifting out agendas is at the whims of a smaller selfish group of gamblers. They have no respect or interest in culture or media for its own sake. They're salesmen. Cancelling shows left and right and peddling rebranded shit vomit.

The mixtape.

How the fuck can we ever recreate the mixtape?

People are working in a meta-direction creating parallel universes and new topological folding mathematics to accommodate the way they want to ruck their abuse and torture, slavery and animal abuse-- but we lost the mixtape?

Shove a dying animal up a vegan's ass and tell the vegan they can save the animal if they cut themselves open in a live streamed Saw anniversary celebration? Viewer comments are streamed into the room with the human being tortured and read aloud by a mocking AI. Commercials for the world cup featuring the slaves that *didn't* die during the construction and preparation, followed by the Olympics commercials sponsored by the companies that most definitely aren't destroying the planet or contributing to the decay of humanity tell you how to spend your wages. Feel like you're actually getting a fair deal for serving yourself up to capital like a good and obedient cuck? No? How about a commercial to enlist in the military?

Back to the main feature of primetime, available on all streaming platforms.

But the mixtape was replaced with adware that makes Bonzi Buddy look like he actually did something to help your desktop computer.

Shit timeline.

[whatifsandspheres]

“when you find the right person you’ll change your mind about having kids” WRONG 👎❌ the right person doesn’t want kids either

[whatifsandspheres]

The mixtape.

How the fuck can we ever recreate the mixtape?

People are working in a meta-direction creating parallel universes and new topological folding mathematics to accommodate the way they want to ruck their abuse and torture, slavery and animal abuse-- but we lost the mixtape?

Shove a dying animal up a vegan's ass and tell the vegan they can save the animal if they cut themselves open in a live streamed Saw anniversary celebration? Viewer comments are streamed into the room with the human being tortured and read aloud by a mocking AI. Commercials for the world cup featuring the slaves that *didn't* die during the construction and preparation, followed by the Olympics commercials sponsored by the companies that most definitely aren't destroying the planet or contributing to the decay of humanity tell you how to spend your wages. Feel like you're actually getting a fair deal for serving yourself up to capital like a good and obedient cuck? No? How about a commercial to enlist in the military?

Back to the main feature of primetime, available on all streaming platforms.

But the mixtape was replaced with adware that makes Bonzi Buddy look like he actually did something to help your desktop computer.

Shit timeline.

[whatifsandspheres]

[whatifsandspheres]

As a millennial that learned about copyright, intellectual property, and read Lessig and Doctorow as a teenager-- I am absolutely impressed by the psyop that Apple products did on the general public.

While the mp3 represented hope for a new era of free culture, the Ipod came along and mesmerized everyone with it's sleek little design and "safe and legal" music marketplace.

They couldn't stop it overnight, either, people were hacking and jailbreaking those things left and right to continue to be able to load them with pirated music and video.

So they kept releasing more models and making them harder and harder to modify, and unfortunately also harder to repair or even troubleshoot or debug at home.

The newer generations seem afraid to infringe copyright and don't even know which authors and artists actually encourage it.

I know I've pirated some games and other media that I then gladly pay money for because I believe in what the artist has done. Not because it's necessarily putting or taking food of their table.

*leaves this on your dashboard like a cat leaves a gift*

[whatifsandspheres]

The idea that non-police lynchings ever stopped in the US instead of whites just becoming craftier (evil) about it is so weird to me like

Sure they ain’t picnicking at a public hanging anymore but you seen how many more missing posters there’s been the past few years in particular right? How so many Black and Brown children are just fuckin disappearing too and never making anything more than a Facebook missing post?

We just only hear about them when someone cares about them enough to set fire to everything until it gets noticed.

[whatifsandspheres]

2014-07-20

[whatifsandspheres]

Dragonfruit from last year was much smaller than the ones I've grown in a pot, but there were more of them. These photos are from September onward. This year they bloomed last night and tonight.

[whatifsandspheres]

A rust-colored, rectangular water feature with a small waterfall cascades into a larger, similar basin, surrounded by lush greenery and a stone wall. A partially visible outdoor seating area is in the background. Find more inspiration at tenniswood.co.uk

[whatifsandspheres]

Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are, the bird is going to shit on the board and strut around like it won.

#Speakin4Myself

[whatifsandspheres]

Basically, the dilemma with media in the process of trying to become more relatable and universal, is sometimes, or very oftentimes, it becomes detached from whatever soul it may have had at its core. Someone making something they want everyone to take a piece from for themselves isn't going to want to offend or scare off potential consumers. In a way, that sort of selling out and shallowness can even still be possible with deep topics and emotions. Even with inflamed passions! Politics are a great example of that. "Oh, you know, Dune could be seen from any sort of perspectives. It doesn't necessarily have to remind anyone of the Middle East and the plight of European Imperialism or American oppression. It's fantasy. It's for fun and entertainment. It's not meant to be about Earth, even." Fortunately, Frank Herbert already spoke his peace about his work. Those types of authors are rarely allowed to get their work into the mainstream. Of course sex sells. A half-brain-dead monkey could relate. I think the best phenomenon in culture is when media either intentionally or unintentionally gets laced with a dose of truth. Like a little Trojan horse. With so much subsidized and mob-chanted propaganda and echo chambers, I think people who are able to do that are striving for something more than just to make a legacy for themselves or a "here's my two cents, make me immortal."

[whatifsandspheres]

A circular stone basin containing water and aquatic plants is situated in a garden setting; a curved metal spout pours water into the basin from above. Find more inspiration at tenniswood.co.uk

[whatifsandspheres]