Notices by Andrew (Television Executive) (ajroach42@retro.social)

Anyway, if you have any pieces of media you love from the Japanese public domain, let me know.

I've fallen down a rabbit hole of works in the Japanese public domain.

this is a real weird rabbit hole because it's a Big lot of works by a bunch of people with whom I am mostly not familiar (and a couple who's works I know pretty well), mostly untranslated (because the translations would still be under copyright), and almost all from pre-1954.

Which, of course, means that I'm also contending with the history of imperial Japan in the lead up to, during, and in the aftermath of the second world war.

One of the pieces I'm looking at is a 1941 film (part one was released about a week before the attack on Pearl Harbor) called The 47 Ronin. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_47_Ronin_(1941_film) )

It was directed by Mizoguchi Kenji at the direction of the government, who wanted something patriotic to raise morale, and instead got something weirder and more challenging, and it's ultimately a a flawed but compelling film.

But it's also a product commissioned by the government of Japan during WWII.

I'm on the fediverse because I consider Facebook to be a threat to the future of humanity.

We're doing a digital assistant talking head in our dumb space show Shouting into The Void.

This is the first time I've ever done a floating head style special effect, and I think it came out looking great.

Her name is NOVA and she is the shipboard computer for the entirety of the Solar and Interstellar Telecommunications Ventures fleet.

I want to hear the local bands that you loved when you were involved in your local music scene.

If you're still involved, send me some bandcamp links. If you stopped going to local shows fifteen years ago, it's time to rip your CD-Rs.

We also went to the Biltmore estate, an experience that made me stomach turn.

I should explain what The Biltmore Estate is for those who might not be familiar.

It was originally 135 square miles, but the George Vanderbilt died and the US government started collecting income tax and his wife sold many miles to the US government which turned it in to the Pisgah national forest.

The Biltmore Estate is a gilded age mansion. The largest privately owned home in the united states, and a monument to excess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biltmore_Estate

It's huge.

178,926 square feet.

Massive.

And the grounds are huge too! 13 square miles today.

The audio tour stresses how proud the servants were. Talks about all the good the estate did for the community.

Doesn't mention the 700 families that were displaced to build the place.

It's beautiful. Some of the best views of the Appalachian mountains I've ever seen. Magnificent gardens. An astounding collection of art and prints and furniture.

The tour was more than an hour long and barely covered even 1/4th of the house, much less the rest of the grounds.

It was also just propaganda. The estate is still privately held. They charge $100/head for entry. There were at least 500 people in the main grounds, but likely many many more.

Anyway, fuck the plutocrats and the aristocracy.

Nothing this overwhelmingly excessive should have ever been in private hands.

I've been thinking about The Internet and The Economy over the last 50 years and I keep coming up against this idea that makes me want to scream.

Our entire economic system is built around this idea that a small, sustainable, profitable business is worthless, and that only a MASSIVE INTERDEPENDENT BEHEMOTH that grows larger with each passing quarter is acceptable.

Netflix can't ever lose any customers, ever, because they are operating at a scale where their debts are ridiculously high, and the only thing keeping them afloat is the fact that they show Growth quarter over quarter over quarter.

Federated, decentralized Etsy replacement when?

I wonder who owns the rights to Filmation's Ghost Busters toy production today.

I wonder how hard that would be to track down.

Filmation's in house assets, including Ghost Busters, were sold to Halmark in the 90s.

Halmark media was purchased by Entertainment rights who was purchased by Boomerang media, later renamed Classic media, later acquired by Dreamworks and renamed Dreamworks classics.

Ultimately, dreamworks was acquired by Universal, who now own 100% of the rights to Ghostbusters, and are unlikely to sell them or anything else, because they're a monstrous megacorp.

I should do this research for more old media properties, but I imagine the answer is going to be the same most of the time.

Etsy sellers are striking and asking for a boycott.

Starting a thread of bandcamp recs for Bandcamp Friday tomorrow.

Jump in and share music you've made or love.

Keyboard adapter showed up.

In 1970, Hunter S Thompson ran for Sheriff of Aspen, Colorado.

He was convinced, and I believe rightly so, that the only way Change was going to come to this country was through local and municipal action ahead of national action.

He ran one of the stranger campaigns that has ever been run, and almost lost his life for it.

Freak Power, The Ballot or the Bomb details the last time Hunter S Thompson had hope.

https://mountaintown.video/videos/watch/36af6e5c-6f27-45e2-8dfd-252ae772db50