[nonostantement #141] - tiktok beatmaker / ernest hemingway narrated by a puppet / coronavirus & privacy
Now with MORE links! Like, way too much links, I know.
Welcome to nonostantement: a weekly newsletter with civil, disloyal and irregular stuff found all over the Internet.
Good morning passengers. My name is Joele Lucherini and I am the captain. Brace yourselves because this is going to be a looong and messy one!
Yes. I am not a real captain, I am a consultant designing and managing online branding and advertising strategies. But no one is actually reading these intros so…I am an old school rap fan, I genuinely hate autotune… but - I don’t know why - I like this track from Future, featuring Drake. You could listening to it while browsing the links here. Or not. Your call.
Don’t forget that if you like this newsletter you can now offer me a virtual coffee to show your support :)
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu
#TECH
GANksy is the result of a StyleGAN2 neural network trained using the portfolio of a certain street artist to create disturbing AI-powered street art.
If you don’t need AI-powered street art but you want realistic computer-generated handwriting… Calligrapher.ai is the answer.
OK, maybe you don’t even need computer-generated handwriting, but you absolutely want to randomly generate a line-up of bands who played a UK festival in the 1990s… well, that's weirdly specific, but we've got you covered with the 90s FESTIVAL GENERATOR!
#MUSIC
[Video] And if you are bored scratching with vinyls, we have here a Japanese (obviously) video on how to scratch with barcodes.
Next time you make fun of kids dancing to K-Pop music, remember the K-Pop band BTS becoming multi-millionaires minutes after their record label's hit IPO doubled on its stock market debut.
Who is leaking unreleased music from some of the world’s biggest rappers? Maybe this 17-year-old guy.
Oda is a new music platform based on a subscription system and a hardware created specifically for listening to live events. Here is something somehow really innovative and interesting, for once. And I love their aesthetic.
[Video] - the Suiko ST-50 is an obscure synthesizer made for the Japanese traditional music market, originally created to accompany poetry!
“What makes a great TikTok beat? You need concrete, sonic elements that dancers can visually engage with on a person-by-person basis. I know that sounds super scientific, but that is how I think about it. If you’re trying to make a viral beat, it’s got to correspond with the viral dance.” I found this interview with the most viral beatmaker on TikTok fascinating and very helpful in understanding the evolution of how we create, listen and sell music these days.
#PEOPLE
[Video] - The Exploding Hammer Festival: an annual festival which takes place in San Juan de la Vega, Mexico. The sole objective is for participants to hit things with a sledgehammer packed with explosives so it blows up. Whatever, you had me at “exploding”.
[Video] - Akashinga: The Brave Ones - A short documentary about an all-female anti-poaching squad in Africa.
[Video] - UNICEF ad from 2005, which features the Smurfs getting bombed by war planes. The ad was given approval by the family of the Smurfs' late creator, Peyo.
[Video] - Making pizza with a Lego pizza factory. Do I really need to add anything to this?
[Video] - The life and times of Ernest Miller Hemingway in 3 and a half minutes. Narrated by a puppet. Obviously.
#SOCIALMEDIA
Influencers, like Instagram and YouTube content creators, are often exploited. So they are now turning to unions. This is a very interesting topic, by organizing into groups they could solve a problem faced for years by traditional creatives: the ongoing descending price auctions and the lack of respect for one's work. Let’s see.
We already talked about TikTok houses. But what happens when social media stars turn rented Los Angeles mansions into content-generating “collab houses”?
A new social-media platform wants to enforce “kindness”. Noble intent that I believe will shatter against the inevitable attitude of mankind, when confronted with interaction with others without instant emotional feedback (which we normally have when we are in front of our interlocutor and can perceive the effect of our actions).
Let's continue with our guides on how to understand TikTok while being adults: How Charli D’Amelio Became the Face of TikTok.
#THEDARKSIDE
Bellingcat is an investigative journalism website that specializes in fact-checking and open-source intelligence. You can watch a documentary about the website. Or you can read this interview with its founder on finding truth in a world of disinformation. Do whatever you like, the important thing is that you do something about it.
What is like being a deepfake actor, a performer whose face will never be seen.
The coronavirus could be here to stay. Your privacy may be another victim. as businesses of all kinds are stumbling forward — some more blindly than others — with varying forms of invasive tracking technology. As for Bellingcat: read the article or watch the video about it. Do something ;)
That's it for now.
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