After the 'Vid

[pattycakes_]

Hollywood’s Obituary, the Sequel. Now Streaming.

In the 110-year history of the American film industry, never has so much upheaval arrived so quickly and on so many fronts.

www.nytimes.com

Saw this on another forum. The article is not all that relevant to the thread, but I liked this:

There’s a reason that the Roaring Twenties followed the 1918 pandemic,” J.J. Abrams, the Bad Robot Productions chairman, said by phone. “We have a pent-up, desperate need to see each other — to socialize and have communal experiences.

Been wondering what the landscape will be like once things pass. The above quote got me thinking. There is potential for positivity. Instincts strongly say no.. yet I can't help but hope.

 

[WashYourHands]

Post-Covid Syndrome. You see someone's breath in the cold and walk around them and their spore spreading.

1918 was a far more traumatised world, so woke/green capitalism and maybe a few wars before i finally collapse. UK still has Brexit and hyperinflation to navigate and the US is waiting to see what the Trump supporting side of the nation could do next.

Irish passport, so we're looking at Portugal. Had too many clients o.d. this year, like a scythe came down. Time for a change. Waiting to see how these vaccines function first. Europe has never looked better.

 

[constant escape]

But if the neoliberal global regime does ramp up, then surely the exuberance and excess are things of the past, no? That is, if the green agenda, even just ostensibly, becomes more of a dominant agenda.

edit: and I'm all about sustainability and regenerative practices, in case I appear reactionary to anyone on this front.

 

[pattycakes_]

Maybe it won't take the form of exuberance/excess per se, but I could see new underground cultures emerging. The seeds are in the ground already. And it's no guarantee of anything, there's just plenty of appetite for something.

 

[WashYourHands]

Can you remember the neocons, Stan? They were a right hoot.

The scrying mirror is a bit dusty, out of use and needs a polish, but something (imho) seemed to shift around 2012 and not from an apocalyptic, S American visionary perspective.

It's too early to call and ideals in the greater human experience are just cushions propping up the consumption machine.

Battery humans. Is that dystopian enough? We haven't had a war close to home for a while. Maybe a Russian or Chinese nuclear sub gets in trouble just outside domestic waters, there's a squabble about territorial legalities and cue mushroom cloud? England win a football tournament, actually that's the least likely.

 

[linebaugh]

Crime rises in the summer time

 

[pattycakes_]

The future's dystopian, no two ways about it. But it makes wonder if people will get more creative & take things underground. There could be a cultural silver lining.

 

[WashYourHands]

A wave of sti's.

Getting double copies of want-list records.

Putting a rig together again for a marathon session at a mate's out in the sticks, assuming the vaccine has no issues. Police can only do so much once it's up and running. Been too long. I need a night of communion, dance and debauchery under the stars. Had to retire from dogging.

Cultural revolutions, no idea. Greater tolerance for bongo circles?

 

[pattycakes_]

I'm not talking big picture revolutions. They tend not to work out and are quickly absorbed by the globalism blob. I was thinking more DiY. Low key, smaller things. Tightly knit shit. People doing what you just described, tucked out of the way. I have a feeling this will happen. And if there's bongos, so be it!

 

[pattycakes_]

A rebellious wind's a blowing

 

[constant escape]

The underground culture point is interesting - I just wonder what such cultures would look like to us, today, taken out of time. I guess it depends on what kind of cultures are favored by the orthodoxies at play. (edit: like how the Watchmen series involved an underground white supremacist terrorist organization)

and @WashYourHands no I'm not familiar with the neocons at all really. Before my time, I gather.

 

[WashYourHands]

I'm not talking big picture revolutions. They tend not to work out and are quickly absorbed by the globalism blob. I was thinking more DiY. Low key, smaller things. Tightly knit shit. People doing what you just described, tucked out of the way. I have a feeling this will happen. And if there's bongos, so be it!

Do it yourself, innit.

 

[pattycakes_]

Venues are fucked. The franchises are going to gobble everything up. It's going to suck bad. But there will always be people wanting something else. Speakeasies, clandestine movie nights, poetry clubs. 3 day peyote sessions at Stan's ranch. People getting together to dance it off. There's fuel for the fire. I lightly dabbled in the squat scene in london in the early 00s. That lot have been doing it for decades.

and @constant escape yes, no doubt both sides of the coin will be active. No way around it. But sometimes that kind of environment makes for a greater drive to express your pov, be it through art or letterbombs. I think the cultural stagnation we're witnessing in our time is partially because for all the existential darkness around us, we've gotten too comfortable. Maybe what some people predicted would happen during covid will actually happen after.

 

[pattycakes_]

Anyway, I realise this is all hypothetical stonerish shit. I'm just bored,

But! wasn't everything all fucked and hopeless after the 1918 one?

And didn't that lead to an explosion in lit and pissups?

 

[pattycakes_]

Do it yourself, innit.

Or at least some ideas.

Is there a possible antidote to the current clubbing landscape? Could even a small niche be carved to serve the disscernsussing types? You know, us lot. Or does it already exist? Any of you currently going to some lesser known gem? Anyone know any consistently good nights, clubs, promoters operating right now that don't fall into the pit of mediocrity? Sounds like good tings a gwan in Lisbon according to IdleRich.

Had this idea for a while:

A club with a cyberpunkish sounding, one syllable name, like drome or something equally retro/silly/ambiguous. Small sign above non descript door. No frills. Corsica presentation. Haven't thought too much about decor or music policy. The main twist would be no publicity. No flyers, no websites. The lineup would never be known and you wouldn't be able to see the dj. Maybe, and only just maybe, a silhouette. But that would be it. Powerful sound, natch. One main room and one mong out room playing ambient/experimental stuff.

The main point being to take away the focus from dj, put it back on the music and have people interact with each other.

Music wise,, dance music in all forms. Flow is important but genre not so much. I guess the key thing to pull it off would be to make sure the music was always fucking amazing. Tony Humphries used to work on the 15min rule. He'd play 15min of one style and then switch it up. That way his crowds never got bored. Worked for him.

Extra ideas: What if leaving your phone in a locker was mandatory? Is a selective door policy ever a good idea? And I don't mean the fittest birds and trendiest dudes. I mean bouncers on our level who know the score and would be able to suss out who would work and who wouldn't. Kind of like Berghain, except good. Hopefully attracting something between the music box and the loft style crowds. Maybe it should cater to people older than 25?

So over to you, any ideas about what you think would make for a quality against the grain kind of space which would maybe move us away from what is happening to the boilerroomification of clubland?

 

[constant escape]

Ideally you'd be able to have your hand in a few spaces at once, pulling revenue from one to develop the next, defining the trend as it unfolds (edit: rather than just a one-time crack at nailing the spirit of the day). You'd have a cadre of grapeviners to trickle the agenda down, selecting the ideal crowds, etc.

 

[luka]

I'm joining stans cult out in Sierra Nevada just stitching my robe as we speak

 

[constant escape]

No badges allowed.

 

[boxedjoy]

I don't think it will be good. People will be tired and defeated by the world that exists after 2020.

If you think back to the London riots in 2011 and the beginnings of austerity, there was chatter then about similar things, and I don't think it really amounted to much, certainly not on the scale that people seemed to expect.