Adventures with Recency Bias // October 2024
Recency bias is a cognitive bias that favors recent events over historic ones; a memory bias. Recency bias gives "greater importance to the most recent event."
When people ask me how I felt about any piece of media, I will always say I loved it. I don’t know why, but I can assure it’s genuine. It’s not in my nature to be critical. My partner says that I’m “easily excitable”. It’s a curse, but one adorned in blissful ignorance. I’m happy it’s this way as opposed to the other way, at least. However, I think it’s important as a burgeoning artist to take a step back and really think about the art that one is ingesting.
Anyway, here is my take on a classic ‘about town’ a la the New Yorker. Except that it’s just me. I am not an architect or a chef or a movie maker. I’m hardly even a writer. Like most people, I am not qualified to give an opinion on anything, ever. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.
Literature //
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
Mr. VanderMeer is a modern day champion of the New Weird Genre, which is a type of science-fiction that I have a great affinity for. Author of some of my favorite book series like “Area X” (the first book is better known as the film Annihilation to most folks) and the even more inventive and strange Ambergris saga, I came into this book expecting to be inspired and humbled. However, his somewhat newer novel, Hummingbird Salamander, was a near miss on all accounts. You would think that a noir-inspired thriller set during the beginning stages of an apocalypse fueled by the Anthropocene would fit in not only with his existing body of work. But alas, the story failed to capture any of the magic of his previous tales.
Every character was insufferable, the language was stilted and cold. The plot hardly made sense, and any symbolism, which I don’t really require for myself as important ingredients of a story, hit me over the head like a blunt object. It was hard not to be a tiny bit insulted. All the amazing concepts that the story hints at remain as taunting whispers. I hate to sound like any fan of a band that goes mainstream, but if Mr. VanderMeer’s further novels continue on this trend, I will be forced to declare to any hipster at The Strand who is unfortunate enough to be within my proximity, “His old stuff was better”.
Music //
Tennis Courts
Not to be confused with Baseball Fields or MMA Octagons, Tennis Courts is a band that I hold near and dear to my heart, even though I discovered them semi-recently. Galivanting around Washington Square Park one weekend, my partner and I were invited by this bowl cut wearing weirdo to go to his concert. Feeling full of joi de vivre, we went. No, Tennis Courts was not headed by that coiffure abomination, but he was the opener. We came for the weirdo, but stayed for the main event. There was literally one person in the crowd who found Tennis Courts when they performed at a dive bar in Tennessee two years ago, but he had enough STAN power for the entire venue.
Tennis Courts is headed by an entirely gifted duo. Their sound is indie-pop and has been described as "hyper-caffeinated”. I agree, but I’d also add gloomy and nostalgic, the feeling of being older and looking back at times that you didn’t think were important. Of weekend benders and being invincible to hangovers and seeing a high school crush at a hometown bar during Thanksgiving break. But it’s also of driving in the summer with the top of your convertible down, not that I own a vehicle. Give them a listen.
Movie //
Furiosa
I’m not sure if this is a hot take, but I don’t watch the Mad Max movies for Max. In fact, I don’t really watch it for anything other than how insane and unique the world is. Also, I like explosions. Like most millennials, my journey into the series came in reverse - I saw Fury Road in theaters and then started at the first one. Maybe I’m a product of my time, but Fury Road is my favorite over the original three. It was a great gift to see a return to this diesel fueled, anarchist-Australia through a character that I felt had more personality, screen presence, and arc than Max himself: the great Imperator Furiosa. In this prequel, where she is played now by Anya Taylor-Joy instead of Charlize Theron, she contends with an equally imposing Dr. Dementus, who is quite a different flavor than Immortan Joe.
This felt like it’s own movie, but not necessarily a necessary one. It was a treat to return to this desolate landscape, and everything was top-notch, but I’m not really into these movies for the story. In terms of narrative development, I don’t think Furiosa adds anything to the plot of the Fury Road, but it doesn’t really take anything away, either. As such, I’m viewing the movies in the way that Mr. Millar originally intended to film them: in parallel.
Television //
True Detective Season 1
My whole life people have pleaded with me to watch shows or movies that they just know that I’d love. Now, I’ve settled down to embark on this quest (hence this entire post). After 10 years, I’ve somehow discovered the beauty that is the first season of True Detective. Bleak, creepy, infuriating, and anxiety driven, no one in this show is redeemable in any sense. Matthew McConaughy’s character is a drunken, misanthropic, oddball. Woody Harrelson’s character is a drunken, waddling adulterer. Take these two simulacrums of decent humans and put them against a Lovecraftian backdrop in the bayou and you get True Detective Season 1. Picture this: eating a bag of Doritos and seeing that famous “Dorito dust” capped on your fingers. Rub them together and feel uncomfortable. That’s how it feels to watch True Detective. And you’ll end up loving it.
This show is a masterclass in character development and world building. While this show is nothing I haven’t seen before, I will still be holding any new cosmic-horror detective story against this. And it’ll be a hard champion to beat.
Art //
Glumlot
Prepare for a hypocritical contradiction.
I do not inherently support AI in the creation of art and its products. Perhaps I sound crotchety, perhaps it’s a resistance to change, I don’t know. But I do know that, as it stands today, I feel that AI actively weakens the relationship between artist and art. There are tools like Midjourney and Gemini which are mighty fascinating, but the product is of the software, not so much the artist. One could argue that you are training the AI to spit out what you want it to, but at the same time, it’s not really yours. It’s not like Yves Klein’s “Klein Blue” painting, where he literally created a color never seen before in the human spectrum. For AI, you are just pulling from an existing neural network. It’s not the same.
But.
And yet.
An Instagram account that I follow is Glumlot, an AI artist. My opinion still stands that I think AI is hokum, but that still does not stop me from enjoying the utter strangeness of Glumlot’s work. A quaalude laced cocktail of Tellytubby-esque fever dreams, liminal spaces, and 70’s low (high?) quality sci-fi pulp, Glumlot’s work is quite a delight if you’re looking to get uncomfortable. To say there is a vacancy of the soul in this output is to be misguided - there is a vacancy of the soul, but whatever has replaced it is insidious and teetering on the edge of delirium. I’m sure it won’t be the strangest thing I’ll see in this AI landscape, but it’s certainly one of the most unique.
My position still stands, however. Bite me.
Travels //
UFO & Paranormal Museum in Pine Bush, New York
A couple months ago I spent a long weekend in Walden, New York to go to the Angry Orchard Cidery. You’d think I would detail the amazing ciders, the deep red of the farmhouse, the apple orchard which surrounds the cidery. But instead I’d like to take you to somewhere a tad more unique: the UFO and Paranormal Museum in the neighboring town of Pine Bush, New York.
For those who don’t know (we certainly didn’t), Pine Bush is a world renowned hot spot of UFO activity, and a frequently travelled location for UFO chasers, conspiracy theorists, and d-level celebrities famous for appearing on the History Channel. The museum, designed by a man whose trade was building escape rooms, is split into two halves. The first half is dedicated to all things UFOs, testimonial sightings, news paper clips, “leaked documents”. It was all pretty legit, and I can actually see how someone could fall down a rabbit hole and attend UFO chasing conventions. The second half was for cryptids, which theoretically would have been amazing, had the bar not been set so high with the E.T. exhibit. The cryptid component had very little going for it sans one or two news articles, testimonials without ethos, and drawn pictures that looked very much like attempted suspect photos. The entire experience started legitimate (as much as it could be) and devolved into “have you ever seen Dogman? No? We haven’t either, but it would be really, really strange if you did, right?”
As I write this, I’m thinking now that the Pine Bush UFO and Paranormal Museum is exactly the type of establishment I’d run if I were an E.T. and trying to lay low. It’s a little too on the nose. Yet for what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure my friends and I were the only aliens wandering around that one-street town, gawking at the trees, the open space, and the vehicles like the urban denizens that we are.
Video Games //
Alan Wake
A creatively drained novelist takes his wife to the small, woodsy town of Bright Falls. What starts as a nice weekend getaway from New York City quickly delves into a nightmare world of light versus darkness, the novelist’s diminishing sanity, and the kidnapping of his wife, of which he is framed for her murder. On top of that, there is a ‘dark presence’ that aims to take control of the novelist’s narrative, both in his actual life and the new novel that he doesn’t remember writing. Sound like a Stephen King novel? You bet. Inspired by Twin Peaks? Obviously. What about Twilight Zone? Um, have you ever heard Night Springs?
But is it derivative? Absolutely not.
Alan Wake, release in 2006 by Canadian studio Remedy (responsible for games like Max Payne and Control, the latter of which is one of my favorite games of all time), one can learn a lot from this game in terms of storytelling, both narratively and environmental. The gameplay is very 2010, as are the graphics and voice acting, but it’s important to allow excuses for the time. That would be like judging the Rock in Scorpion King for the bad CGI. The game isn’t necessarily a horror game, although I’ve read that was the intent. It’s more atmospheric and uncomfortable. The quiet, small town of Bright Falls flips from a Stars Hollow to the sinister muck of Blue Velvet’s suburban hellscape during nightfall.
The gameplay is basic and not terribly challenging, although there are times when the shooting aspect can get tactical. The puzzles are embarrassing for all parties involved.
Yet, strangely, the sum is better than the whole of its parts. For Alan Wake, the story is the main reason for entry, as are the characters and the clear homages to its source materials. It’s more like watching a television series (the game itself is comprised of 5 ‘episodes’, each which end with a cinematic cliff hanger and a licensed song to entice the players to tune in next week). Honestly I’m surprised there hasn’t been a television adaption yet.
Architecture //
One River North by MAD Architects
Ever since grad school, I’ve always been irked when people would refer to their projects as “informed by”. For example, this building was informed by the natural landscape, this dish was informed by my culinary history of my grandma. It’s not informed, it’s inspired. Informed means that the relationship between you and your “muse” is top-down, that you, as the artist, designer, writer, chef, etc. are merely a humble vessel for the great mysteries of the cosmos. I mean, when scientists study silk worms, are we informed by the tensile strength of these little workaholics? Or are we inspired, curious, aiming to replicate? When anyone says that their project is “informed by”, it’s really just a way for them to validate their shitty product by saying it contributes to an existing conversation. And what’s worse, it sounds pretentious.
Such is the case for the One River North apartment complex by firm Mad Architects. Situated in the rapidly gentrified industrial neighborhood RiNO in Denver, Colorado, this apartment complex aims to be informed by the neighboring Rocky Mountains. So basically it’s a modernist clam shell cracked open to reveal what honestly looks like bone cartilage. Described as a “vertical canyon”, the “cracked” component of the apartment is actually functional - it has public areas, the amenities, a pool, possibly even a gryphon ride and a tireless and chipper bellhop whose family is buried underneath the grounds and is locked into immortality and eternal servitude by some terrible, architectural based cursed. Point is, this building is not informed by anything. It’s another copy of a copy of a copy. It’s like a mall courtyard, but a high end one. I cannot imagine an ecosystem existing among the plastic plants and the salt water pools, I cannot imagine blemishes and jagged rocks and actual elevation while the residents are playing billiards in the game room or showing off their amenities to their friends. Canyons are organic, this building is anything but.
But look, I get it. Rich people are allowed to have rich people apartments. But can’t they just admit that being “informed” is not a component? Informed does not equal taste. And to that I say: Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Food //
The Nuaa Table
Located on a street very near and dear to my heart and a true anchor for me during the pandemic, The Nuaa Table remained the only restaurant, nay establishment, that I had not opened my coffers to. The Nuaa Table is a highly rated Thai restaurant located quaintly on the corner to enjoy the “open streets” of main avenues (when the city shuts down streets for traffic, so you can walk in the streets and get hit by rampaging electric bikes, I guess). The inside has ingredients of art deco and Ikea, which is what drew me to the place, although the bar in the front is so tiny that I wonder if the restaurant wasn’t a a cafe in a past life. Additionally, the patio is a tiny sliver akin to an alley, although this doesn’t detract from the ambience. In fact, it sort of makes you feel like you are in a caged vehicle traversing the safari, in so far as the hectic open streets are kept at a respectable distance by some cast iron fencing.
The food, however, can only be described as those moments when you see a band and the guitarist or the singer is significantly carrying the ensemble. The stars of the show shine so brightly that it actually dims its companions. Such is the case of the Jasmin Tea-Smoked BBQ Baby Back Ribs, which is an unexpected combination of umami and sweetness. You know you are eating ribs the entire time and you will get messy. If this restaurant only sold this out of their garage I think they’d make a killing.
I admit, I haven’t had the entire menu, so I could be missing some rockstars. But I have had appetizers and their soups and forked food off my partner’s plate as if I were spear fishing, and still those ribs are playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.
Whew. And that’s that. Turns out I have opinions after all. Watch out world, I officially feel empowered to screech my unasked for opinions in public. Picture an Animorphs cover where I turn into a Karen.
Thanks for hanging.