ICYMI: The Maya, Real Love, Apocalypse Now, & SCREENS!
Once upon a time, there were a people called Maya – not Mayan, despite what you've heard... but actually, they didn't even really call themselves Maya until relatively recently. It's a name that was given to them and which they adopted, yet their identity and culture is of course thousands of years old. But it's also current. They aren't extinct or frozen in the past. The people are still here, though the definitions of who and what they are has of course changed... and the latest episode of the Lost Cultures: Living Legacies podcast was all about their history and how people can interact with their culture – responsibly of course!
By the way, the Maya were never actually an empire. Of course, they were affected by empires, though – and so too were the Vietnamese people in the 20th Century, though of course this time the empire was the United States (on the heels of France). And in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 adaptation of Heart of Darkness, the madness of that particular bid for imperial power is thoroughly explored in one of the most psychedelic, metaphorical, and utterly American™ films of all time: Apocalypse Now. And Alicia, Stephen, Mia, and Jeremiah dive deep into the film for the latest episode of the Stereoactive Movie Club podcast!
Isn't it kinda dumb how so much of the "attention economy" built around making and putting out music is focused on the release date? Isn't a song or album just as good after it's out as before? That's the premise under which I spoke with Beat Radio's Brian Sendrowitz and Totally Real Records' Bryan Bruchman about the release of the artist's excellent album 'Real Love,' which was released 6 months ago, in October of 2022, but – surprise, surprise! – is just as good now as it was then. And honestly, maybe even better?
And speaking of attention economies... When was the last time you looked at a screen? I mean, you're looking at one right now, right? But when was the last time before this? Probably not that long... maybe it was your phone, maybe a tablet, a laptop, a monitor, a Sony 4K television, a screen on a gas pump, etc etc etc. The point is, screens are everywhere, and they're hard to avoid. Well, in the latest episode of Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby, Matt gets into what screens are doing to us as people and as a society.
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~ J