Being Boiled

Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. Record-breaking temperatures everywhere, this old failing laptop is really struggling and croaking now, and Lenovo STILL haven’t shipped the new one. So I still haven’t finished the goddamn novella or done much of anything else beyond sweat, stare into space and mostly lose at trying to get medication into one of the girl cats. Meanwhile, the mancub is exulting in summer and lives outside twenty-four-seven now. They gave me a dish of chilled cherries with my espresso at the coffee shop today.

So I’m breaking the usual structure a bit and just getting some things down for you and then going back to being boiled.

Mia Woolf sent me a new work:

It starts like a collection of her paintings, and then slowly morphs into a shoreline dream narrative. Amazing.

(Excuse dirt under thumbnail, I’d just been earthing up potatoes when this arrived)

This made me smile because it reminded me of the mark on the cover of the seminal STRANGE DAYS:

I have no idea how to get one of these, so maybe just ask her.

I was stopped dead this week by this section of a recent rant by Ed Zitron:

That made me sit and think. Has consumer tech hit a wall? Is this just pretty much as good as it gets for a generation? Consumer-level AI is pretty much just useless toys unless you're a coder. Phone evolution has been incremental for many years now. And is screenless really the next logical step for everything?

I mean, never bet against the future, but…. really?

That said: haven’t things felt incremental and iterative for a while now?

Find more Lordess Foudre work at her Instagram and Substack.

Jerome Eyquem is an artist and writer: here are his releases on GlobalComix.

SERIOUS MATTERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Last week, I was sent this very fun short film written and directed by Josh Copeland.

In a near-future Southern American city, a rideshare driver traffics electronic empathy drugs to her passengers. When a new variety of the drug comes her way, she finds herself falling into a subculture of digitized-Faith abusers.

It's on YouTube, but if you want to watch it via Vimeo and learn more about this award-winning sixteen-minute wonder, go here: https://www.fuckgiantkiller.com/serious-matters

Artist, writer and educator Rain DeGrey moved to the wilderness after a lifetime in California and this is the record of her discovery of the land and the seasons. This is her newsletter.

Todd Blackwood is the creator of NOSFERATU: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL. See more of his art on his IG.

If you want to work together this year, or if you’re doing something creative you want more people to know about, or if you think there’s something Orbital Operations should be covering, hit reply to this newsletter to shoot a note to the office.

Picked up IF WE COULD HEAR by Natalie Beridze the other day, and it opens like Ligeti or Penderecki with an alien choir in an abandoned steelyard, and then ascends into dreamspace. Wonderful thing.

I wanted to write a LOT more stuff but circumstances have prevented, so next week may be a bumper edition. Until then, stay safe, stay sane and stay yourself. Take care.

W