Category: field notes

News, essays, reviews, surveillance

Loving the Alien

For hilobrow.com

/ By Marc Weidenbaum
A photo of the head of one of Alien's famed aliens

As I mentioned on Saturday in advance of its publication, I wrote another little piece for hilobrow.com. The current Hilobrow series is 25 short essays on “our favorite sympathetic villains.” The series is named for Endora, from Bewitched. Other entries include Clarence Boddicker (Robocop), Skeletor (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe), and Alexis Carrington (Dynasty). I chose to write about the xenomorphs from Alien. I proposed the entry in advance of the Alien: Earth TV show, and have been quite happy to see the business-suite shenanigans of the earlier storytelling take center stage in this latest serial.

My piece begins: “A corrosive line runs through the Alien franchise, and I’m not talking about the acid blood of H.R. Giger’s famous monsters. I refer to the grim corporate future.” To borrow a phrase from David Bowie, this is a short essay about me loving the alien.

Scratch Pad: Harmony, Scale, Aliens

From the past week

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I find knowing I’ll revisit my posts to be a positive and mellowing influence on my social media activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.

▰ Are we ever gonna get another Mountain Man album?

▰ Morning trio for power saw, passing bus, and washing machine

▰ Little known fact: guitar pedals were originally created to make practicing scales sound more interesting

▰ According to Discogs, there is currently no band on record, so to speak, named Dense Fog Advisory. Just sayin’.

▰ The great hilobrow.com site is running a series of short essays on “our favorite sympathetic villains.” Mine, about the Xenomorphs from Alien, is up next. I’ll mention here when the piece goes live. Here’s the list to date. Super fun.

▰ Read a ton, finished nothing.

Decades

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Me in high school:

The Beatles: 24/7
The Who: a close second
The Rolling Stones: don’t get it
Led Zeppelin: I’m scared

Me decades after high school:

The Beatles: been a while
The Who: who?
The Rolling Stones: hell yeah
Led Zeppelin: pour it into my veins

Disquiet Junto General Instructions Update

One person, one track

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

A pretty straightforward project this week. Should be fun. There is one clarification I wanted to note first. The instruction template for the Junto projects has been slightly adjusted. The instructions on uploading tracks now reads:

Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.

Previously it read:

Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.

And that about covers it. I am, as has been far too often the case, behind on email. I am catching up.