Yesterday I drew some cards to see what I should write about. I used the Robert M. Place Alchemical deck. I’ve heard that the symbology of the cards is too on the nose for some folks, but I sometimes I like my mysteries to not be too mysterious.
1 – Martine Syms
The Interdependence Podcast is hosted by Holly Herndon (whose album PROTO is one of my favorites of the year [even though it came out in 2019]) and Mat Dryhurst (who co-created the AI “Spawn” with Herndon). The latest Patreon episode is called “Loops, Archetypes and being the Ian MacKaye of the art world with Martine Syms.” The episode references this talk, given by the guest:
Which sent me down a rabbit hole of Martine Syms’ work.
Check out My Only Idol is Reality.
2 – THE TAPE LOOP LABYRINTHS OF JUSTIN LAKES
Link.
3 – O, WHEEL OF FORTUNE
I found this extremely strange and slightly haunting video from 1985 by typing “tape loops wheel of fortune” into Youtube.
4 – ARGUMENTATIVE LOOPS
One reason I’m glad that I left Twitter is the endless argumentative loops. Over time, an argument will become a hyperstition, and all that’s left is for us to become possessed by its dual spirit. I am now this side of the argument, and you are that side. We know our roles. We open our mouths. In this case, we wiggle our thumbs.
Trying to put a thought out into the Twittersphere, it’s like a thousand tiny scavengers arrive to repeat the things that we’ve heard over and over again. Conner Habib talks about this through the Anthroposophic lens, this idea that repeated memes and phrases is an Ahrimanic practice and thus one to avoid. He recommends describing things in strange ways. Walking out of a movie theater and saying: that was like being wrapped in purple. Or some such thing.
Imagine walking out of a movie theater.
It becomes an evil process to doomscroll Twitter, to already know the ways in which people are going to piss you off and be wrong but to do it anyway. There is so much life to be lived. So many things to think about without getting trapped in endless loops.
That feels like a good place to stop for today. Maybe I’ll pick it back up with Jeremy Robert Johnson’s The Loop. Feels right.
Be well.
Broken River Blog 