PicoBlog

It can be harder and harder to tell the difference between a high-budget Hollywood animated film and ones made more cheaply and/or overseas. Like most technological innovation, first the quality gets better and then it becomes less expensive for everyone. (Until the next qualitative leap, that is.) We’re in a period right now where a picture like “Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow,” a Spanish production, looks nearly as good as something from the Disney and Sony animation arms, at least upon first glance.

They say Instagram is just a highlight reel. A place for people to tout their accomplishments — a new promotion, a shiny engagement ring, a luxurious vacation, a hot new boyfriend, whatever that may be. I disagree. I find that the best moments in life aren’t on Instagram because they simply can’t be. My life’s highlights aren’t my outfit posts or where I work or even where I traveled to on vacation, as much as I enjoy exploring new cities.

The Wizard of AI Alan Warburton made this very interesting video essay about the cultural impacts of generative AI. Using creative workflows unthinkable before October 2023, he takes us on a colourful journey behind the curtain of AI – through Oz, pink slime, Kanye’s ‘Futch’ and a deep sea dredge – to explain and critique the legal, aesthetic and ethical problems engendered by automated platforms. Alan also made some other memorable video essays in the past, like Goodbye Uncanny Valley (2017), Fairytales of Motion (2019) andSpectacle, Speculation, Spam (2016).

DURING THE later 1940s and 1950s, Neal Cassady was the bosom buddy of Jack Kerouac. After meeting initially in New York City in 1946, their travels across America in the years that followed became the model for Kerouac’s most famous novel On the Road. But Cassady, who lived a roving life always seeking opportunities for excitement, was more than just the latterday Western hero Dean Moriarty portrayed in the book. In 1950, he wrote what became known as the ‘Joan Anderson letter’, an extraordinary missive running to more than 15,000 words, which, it is now felt, was the inspiration for Kerouac to pen subsequent work in a rolling wave of text erupting with his so-called spontaneous prose.

A fellow in Montreal, History Legends, creates by far the most comprehensive video coverage of the frontline in Ukraine. Instagram banned his war coverage last June. Thus, the History Legends Youtube channel here has taken off. I interviewed History Legends by email below. 1. Background (where you're from, how'd you get so knowledgeable about military matters, how'd you start on YT, etc.) I am from Montreal, Canada. My dad taught me everything regarding military matters.

This email goes out to 2,405 South Asian legal professionals. Moez Kaba is the managing partner of Hueston Hennigan, the elite trial firm. Moez’s father drove a cab, and now Moez is one of the most sought-after trial lawyers in the country. And he’s only 42. We spent a lot of time exploring Moez's approach to trial and the role serendipity and boldness played in guiding his path through law.

At the True/False Film Festivalearlier this month, the new Lance Oppenheim documentary Spermworld premiered under unusual circumstances, at least as far as the press was concerned. Premiering this Friday on FX and Hulu, Oppenheim’s extraordinarily intimate and surprising film about the wild, unregulated world of online sperm donation screened for the public at True/False, but a review embargo was placed on critics until two weeks after the festival ended. In practical terms, what that meant for me—and for you, our readers—is that I couldn’t write about my favorite of the 14 films I saw that long weekend.

Strictly speaking, rainbow rock isn’t a “real” genre. The term was invented by Twig Harper to describe a musical and visual style that started burning down the underground highway in the 2000s: Lightning Bolt, Dan Deacon, Extreme Animals. But it never really caught on. What is rainbow rock? Well, there is a lot to say, but I’ll keep it simple: it is distorted arpeggios and neon. (My friend Alex made a playlist that serves as a musicological study of the genre.

The RPO, or Run Pass Option, is currently a big part of the Canadian football game. Here is a brief intro to this concept. When I think of an RPO I think of a Run Play where the Offence is reading a certain defender. This means that the count in the run game DOES NOT INCLUDE that player. Everyone else is blocked, and the Quarterback will make their decision based on the actions of the Read Defender.