Jordan Swartz-The Rad Times #13

I think like most people these days, I consume a decent amount of media on a daily basis. Weekly podcasts and magazines, movies, tv shows, websites, and books and music in between everything else. A few months ago it all came to a head when I was watching a tv show and thought to myself “I just need to finish this show.” Wasn't I watching this show because I enjoyed it, not because it was another task to check off?
That night I made a list of the shows I wanted to watch and scheduled them throughout the week, one episode of a show each week, on the same night. I essentially recreated cable for myself and it has been rewarding in so many ways. With the emotionally heavier shows, I actually have time to digest and think about what I saw, and question what comes next, as opposed to finding out in the next 15 minutes. I have been enjoying shows more, even ones I had previously abandoned; I’m taking them in in a different way, knowing that that’s the one for today. I don’t think our brains are meant to binge like this and from someone who makes art, I don’t think the creators want us to take it in in that way either. Slow down, think about what you saw, wonder what will happen next and what it’ll mean for the characters, and then find out next week.

Thanks for hanging!
Be good to each other.

Maybe the most lyrical and literary film I have ever seen, almost every scene of this movie is a photo I wish I could take, and every shot tells a story in its own right. It side steps and dances around scenes, images, and material that other movies come right out and say, but that’s it’s strong suite. It is devastating and anxiety inducing in a number of ways but even that, they handle with grace and a turn of the head, sometimes the thing not said is the strongest. I don’t remember the last time I finished a movie and immediately wanted to watch it again to see what else I could garner from it. There’s scenes in here that I will be hunting to photograph for the rest of my life. The novel has been on my list to read for a while and after seeing the film, it has jumped to the top.

Cinematic in every way, the photos of Noir City look pulled directly from the golden age of film noir. Made over the span of 20 years, Tannen brings a documentary style to a cinematic approach. Framing and constructing scenes in a variety of styles, it allows a restructuring of the images to create a number of different narratives. This is the venn diagram cross section of Weegee and Crewdson.

Since the ‘90s scientists have known the years between 530-550 were particularly bad and uncharacteristically cold, but no one knew why until recently. After studying an ice core sample from the Swiss Alps, they’ve established that a large volcanic eruption in Iceland in created a massive fog over Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia for upwards of 18 months. Leading to poor crop yields, famine, and eventually the bubonic plague.

I learned about the radio host Joe Frank recently from Ira Glass. While being interviewed, Glass said he got his start working under Frank and it showed him a different approach to the medium. Any listener of This American Life and almost any modern podcast will find the work of Joe Frank very familiar. His work is worth a listen and some of his last episodes were for a podcast called Unfictional.

I love creative design solutions and streamlining processes. Open Structures is an open modular construction system that facilitates re-use and repair. I first found their work through the Autarkytecture project. I love urban planning and new ideas on how to restructure our cities to better accommodate and facilitate it’s people. Per Open Structures- “Autarkytecture proposes flexible constructions that can adapt and change over time. It consists of a catalogue of building components that can be added or subtracted according to the varying needs of its inhabitants.”