G’day teem!
This was supposed to be yesterdays newsletter but I got lazy and didn’t finish it. Below is the intro that was supposed to go at the top.
Hope everyone is feeling all safe and secure after the absolute shit show of a storm we had last night. Shit was absolutely bananas. James and I kept getting distracted from our midnight screening of 2002’s classic Scooby-Doo by the lightning and thunder. Tragic I know.
Super irrelevant now I know, a waste of everyone’s time tsk tsk. Happy September.
Today’s theme is NOSTALGIA! Specifically my nostalgia. Nostalgia for the ultra-specific. I guess that’s what all nostalgia is. Maybe? Potentially. I’m looking it up in the dictionary.
nostalgia
/nɒˈstaldʒə/
noun
a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.
"I was overcome with acute nostalgia for my days at university"
I guess not.
Daily Album:
GO- Jónsi
Thinking about my sensibilities, my taste and the general feng shui of my personality, it’s incredibly easy for me to point to Jónsi’s GO as one of the fundamental albums of my life. The first full solo record from the Sigur Ros frontman, who you may also know from doing the excellent end credits tunes from the end of the How To Train Your Dragon films that I may have bombarded you with if I had known you in high school, this album is a vibrant, eclectic world of wildly different emotions that just speaks to me. I may not know what the hell he’s saying 100% of the time, but I can understand him on a visceral level.
Discovering Jónsi in 2012 with my personal favourite track Tornado, featured here today again in another capacity in today’s Free Space, I was immediately captivated and mesmerized by the wildly immense jungle of sound that Jónsi had created.
The second you turn this thing on, you’re whisked away to a forest. Chirping birds and delightful strings, accompanied by a beat that sounds like a jungle applauding you for existing. And then the guy starts singing.
Jónsi has a voice like an angel. I mean that in a sort of biblical sense, not in a sort of Aretha Franklin sort of sense. Singing half of the lyrics in his native Icelandic, the rest at impossible keys, these tracks sometimes sound like you’re the first Shepard, being approached by an enormous floating eyeball with news about some wild shit happening out a hundred kays away. To hear this guy sing is a gripping experience. He packs so much emotion and spirit into every single beat, it can sometimes feel like a spear of ice getting plunged into your heart.
The album isn’t interested in keeping you in the vibrant jungle, it’s interested in introducing you to every corner of the amazon, from the horribly sad to the incredibly mesmerizing. Lilikoi Boy asks you to wish upon a star before planting you firmly in the sky. Kolnidur buries you under an avalanche of roots and dirt. The final track, Hengilas, is a meditation, sitting you upon the tops of the tallest trees, watching the sunset.
Quite a few of the songs have the same sort of structure, odd starts, explosive choruses before settling. You could map most of Jónsi songs on a chart. But the sounds he uses, deep methodical horns or strange criss-crossing drums, keep each song sounding utterly unique, while also fitting into this very specific package.
It’s an album of dizzying highs and absolutely crushing lows. Tornado, which I mentioned before, is a flattening of the senses, a desperate scream to the cosmos by a broken person who knows that the only person responsible for their unhappiness is themselves. It features one of the most ingenious first minutes of a song ever- opening with the sad plinking of a piano, beautiful, but completely out of tune and time to the melancholic strings behind it.
The song is spinning in circles, unsure of direction, just like the song’s narrator.
And then, the drums, instantly giving those keys purpose, as the narrator finds the shape of their despair, themselves, singing the heartbreaking-
”You grow, you grow like tornado
You grow from the inside
Destroy everything through
Destroy from the inside”
Before the song erupts, a tidal wave crashing on the shore, pain and self-loathing washing you away in a flood that seems like it will never, ever end.
Until it does with the simple sentiment-
”I wonder if I'm allowed just ever to be”
It’s a beautiful sentiment. A beautifully painful song. And it’s placed in a project that is just as remarkable.
Daily Art:
Speaking of How To Train Your Dragon!
THE DRAGON STALACTITE- Concept Art *Artist Unknown I’m sorry*
I like to keep a lil wall of art that I like and appreciate on the wall above my bed. I don’t add to it very often because I am not made out of money. But this piece, acquired in 2015 at Te Papa during their Art Of Dreamworks exhibition, which featured storyboards and animation techniques from their most popular films (A wild thing to have at Te Papa I know) is the centrepiece of my collection.
A beautiful piece from an unmatched film, this is a moment that serves as a visual indication for how the main character, Hiccup, feels about meeting his long though dead mother. It’s heart wrenching and gorgeous and it sits in the centre of my wall.
That space used to belong to poorly maintained posters, calendars or doodles I’d done myself. (Including a large and bad piece done by yours truly starring all the characters from the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim). Getting this, on a solo birthday trip to welli to see the exhibit from my grandfather (my first solo journey out of Auckland, by plane, I’m pretty sure) feels like a turning point from childish obsession to more nuanced art appreciation. Maybe. It’s still How To Train Your Dragon (joined on the wall currently by Scott Pilgrim, Steven Universe, Green Lantern & Kermit the Frog) but you know, it’s a start.
Daily Song:
EUROPE ENDLESS- Kraftwerk
I have more associations to the dance being done by the kid in the cape in the video above than the music itself. The song is good. A wacky lil synth-pop beat that feels like an endless experiment more than anything.
But the dance-
That is a dance created by Steve Zaragoza, internet personality and former cast member of the comedy news youtube channel Sourcefed who I was obsessed with for the majority of my teen years, falling off and jumping back on when they disbanded in 2017.
The dance is a simple two-step, with your hands unfolded. I was more custom to sticking them out in relation to my chest like I was holding two dinner plates. I stole this dance and made it a firm part of my identity in the back half of my high school days, becoming well known for it in my high school drama department. Not being able to dance well in any other capacity, this became the go-to in literally any and all situations. People seemed to be attracted to the novelty of the dance, joining me at various occasions. One of my fondest memories is leading a massive conga line of nerds off stage at a rehearsal for a show, leading around the building, before returning to the stage, all of us doing the same stupid dance.
It’s the closest I’ve ever felt in my life to being unto a god.
Daily Book:
It feels stupid shouting out Harry Potter, because, you know, it’s Harry Potter (especially with the stink thrown on it by renowned transphobe JK Rowling) but I just wanted to share the memory of reading those books over and over- for years- finishing book 5 and starting all over again, getting the first one back out of my primary school library. I devoured those things. I think the seventh is the first book I ever pre-ordered. Waiting (for what felt like a year) to get my grubby lil mutts all over it and demolishing it.
Those books are good and I like em.
Daily Movie:
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER: THE MOVIE- dir. William R. Kowalchuk Jr.
This is a Christmas movie that I had on VHS when I was a wee boy that I took into school every single year around Christmas time. The IT guy, Bruce, (a legend, an icon, and a really nice guy) had a closed circuit tv system set up around school which allowed kids to read the news in the morning and movies to be played when teachers couldn’t be bothered. And he always humoured me and put this bad boy on for the whole school to see.
Now I will say, I don’t know if this movie is any good or not. My memories of it are hazy at best. I do know that the whole thing is free to watch in the youtube video above AND it stars John Goodman as Santa, Whoopi Goldberg as the Ice Queen (the baddie, and I do mean a baddie) singing songs and dicking around. And I mean if that’s not the true meaning of Christmas then I don’t know what is.
Daily Panel:
THE PHANTOM OF NOTRE DUCK- Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge #184. Carl Barks
I’ve loved comics for as long as I can remember. I have very vivid memories of picking out giant omnibus’ of Teen Titans and Bone and Spider-Man (always more interested in Peter Parkers love life than I was with the fights. Like, who cares about the Vulture, Pete’s pissed off Gwen Stacey! What’s he gonna do!) as a kid and absorb them by the next morning. I don’t remember the specific that kicked off this love, but I think a key factor was a collection of comic books that my dad collected as a kid and eventually gave to me.
In the early 2000’s my grandparents on my father’s side, Whanganui farmers for as long as my dad can remember, had a massive flood which, unfortunately, completely washed away the family farm. While I was too young to completely understand the severity of the situation, it was a traumatic experience for everyone involved. That was my dads home. That was my grandparent’s livelihoods. They eventually had to sell the farm and settle into a more suburban life closer to the city, but not before saving everything they could. One of the things that were saved was a massive suitcase from my dad’s childhood, chock full to the absolute brim with comics. Floppies and little trade collections. Footrot Flats and Archie and Mad Magazine and even a few superhero books. One where Goofy and Mikey were adventurers interacting with hyper-realistic humans! Most of them were Australasian reprints of older stories with strange brands like
One of the standouts for me was always this particular issue of Uncle Scrooge. The Uncle Scrooge books, starting in the sixties, written and drawn by Carl Barks, has always been a strange case. The direct inspiration for the Ducktales cartoon and its reboot, Barks was given permission to do what he wanted with the one-note cartoon character so long as kids kept buying more books. So Barks decided the most logical choice would be to turn Scrooge and his whole family into world travelling adventurers, seeking treasure and daring wherever they went.
In this one, Scrooges fife, the only way to open his safe to his vast fortune, is stolen by the mysterious Phantom of Notre Duck, leading to a wild goose chase all around the cathedral to get it back. This issue of Scrooge draws you in thanks of the sheer talent of Barks. He fills every single panel with such warmth and character that you don’t even notice the beautiful detail he’s bringing to the cathedral itself, making the place feel so expansive and epic. It’s a strange juxtaposition to see Donald Duck chasing a masked man up a detailed cathedral spire but it works man.
These books, and this book in particular, helped open my little baby brain up to a whole new world of storytelling possibilities, inspiring me for years to come. I even wrote a whole spec script last year based on this comic. If that ain’t inspiration…
Daily Pic Off My Phone:
Here’s a pic that I saved to my phone at one point that brought me joy.
Nothing to do with nostalgia, just very funny to see W Bush painting the goofy movie “damn bitch you live like this” meme
Daily FREE SPACE:
FILMOGRAPHY 2010 - 2013- Gen Ip
Today, I’m starting to write today’s newsletter here, with the piece of art that inspired today’s theme. We’re focusing on a lesser-known and underappreciated sub-genre of youtube content. That is the “END OF YEAR CINEMA MASHUP” Lots of folks have given it their fair shake, myself included, to varying success. But today I wanted to discuss my introduction to the genre, and the best to ever do it, Gen Ip.
The video attached above- Filmography 2012- was the first of her work that I stumbled upon, back when I was a wee fool at the age of 14. Needless to say, I had my mind spontaneously combusted by the masterful editing that Ip had on display.
From 2010 to 2013, once a year, Ip would upload a five-to-seven minute mashup of that year’s major releases set to music, the challenge being to use as many films as you possibly could. A simple enough task it would seem, until you get down to the nitty, gritty of it. In 2010 she used clips from 210 different films. In 2012 had over 300. The tumblr page that listed any information about 2013 looks to have been dead for a long time, but needless to say there’s no doubt she would have beaten her record again.
The skill it requires, not to mention the patience, to sift through all that footage and place it together in some sort of cohesive package, let alone in five minutes, is an achievement all to itself. Round of applause there Ms Ip.
But what makes Ip’s work so special, at least to me, is the multiple micro-narratives that she is able to weave through these things. Not are they incredibly cool from a visual standpoint, but to me, she is able to craft lovingly tailored pieces of art that speak to the things that make us the most human. Love. Life. Death.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this, maybe she’s just really good at finding cool sound bites. But I argue that is exactly the art that is at display here. Using everything she has at her fingertips, sound-bites, video clips, music, transitions, she’s able to hone in on specific feelings, to micro-dose you with short bursts of specific moods, tones and emotions. I don’t know if she’s the first to ever do it, but she very cleverly cuts the videos into specific sections, a different section for each new song, around six sections in each video. In each section, using the music as a cue, she is able to introduce us to a new key idea, a new emotion. Using the techniques I discussed above, she is able to hone in on the emotion and, in a very short amount of time, take you through an incredibly wild emotional journey. She’s able to tell you a story.
For example, in Filmography 2012, she segments the video so-
An Epic: The dangers at our doorstep and our ability to face them- Zack Hemsey - End of an Era
Joy: The power of cinema, how it can make us laugh and cheer- C2C - Down The Road
A Thriller: A cautionary tale of how far humans have come and how badly we can hurt each other- Zack Hemsey - The Forgotten
A Romance: The power of love on our lives and how it makes us feel and act- The Heavy - Be Mine
A Comedy: The absurdities of our lives-James Vincent McMorrow - Sparrow and the Wolf
A Tragedy: How easy it is to sink into a hole and how to pull yourself out- Jonsi - Tornado
Hope: A conclusion on everything we’ve seen and will continue to see- Odesza - IPlayYouListen
In a lesser person’s hand, this whole thing would feel disjointed. Juggling far too many things all at once in too short a time to be coherent. But Ip manages to do it seamlessly, holding our hand as we journey from section to section, from scene to scene, from shot to shot, asking us to explore and ponder and think about the themes and emotions on display here.
She tells little stories, pulling at little emotions in moments that last seconds.
Between 0.28 and 0.32- RDJ promises to avenge the earth. Spider-Man thwips his webs, a guy fires a ballista and Abe Lincoln axes a vampire in satisfying one, two, three of thumping sound, making you wanna pump your fist.
1.23 to 1.31 finishes out section 2 by focusing on women, and the perspective that men have of women in movies. We get a close-up of Scarjo’s butt as Zach Woods warns us about the opposite sex.
5.00 to 5.12 hones in on failing relationships and how they destroy us. Shattered porcelain and scattered pearls, Phillip Seymour Hoffman getting deserted at the mall as Paul Rudd explains that “We accept the love we think we deserve”
These things are chock to the brim of moments like these, from start to finish, little and small. It’s masterful and effortless and should be celebrated.
I adore these things, I love the little idiosyncrasies that make them so unique. They had a major impact on me, from the music I listened to, to the way I saw film, these silly lil trailer mashups are a monumental building block in the walls that make up Mattie Bee. I just think they’re neat. They make me feel things that the parts alone couldn’t.
It’s worth mentioning that Ip stopped making these in 2013, much to my disappointment, rocking up on upload day in 2014 after a year of waiting, only to find nothing. But that’s because she’s been busy making actual trailers for the shows you know and love! Malcolm and Marie? That was her! Tenet? All her! The last two seasons of Game of Thrones? The show wasn’t good but the trailers were! All her!
Big ups to Ip!
Daily Good Vibe:
You are my daily good vibe I have decided.
I haven’t been able to hug you in a while, so you transitioned in my mind. You currently exist as a warm memory. You’re my nostalgia. I wish to be done with that curtain, to wipe away the frost, and hold you as tightly as I can until I cannot any longer.
I hope you are well.
xxx
-Mattie Bee
ps. hit me up if you wanna play Gartic Phone or something soon, that’d be fun.