Hivemind Times Issue #20

Welcome To The Hivemind Times!

Happy holidays gang, I hope the past few days have found you all in good health and a state of something resembling relaxation. If not, find solace in this humble newsletter. While we are on break we are still planning the upcoming videos - Sunday will feature an exciting How Did it Age, a classical main channel is nearing release, and an end of season special collab on Cheap Seats is on the horizon. 

I will share some family recipes with you today after cooking for my parents for the past three days and I’ll share my initial thoughts and praise for Robert Eggers Nosferatu. The rest of the gang will drop some noteworthy tidbits too. 

All my best wishes to all the lovely families every Hivemind Times reader has. Enjoy and behave.

- Riley & Graydon

MOVIE REVIEW

Nosferatu (2024)

Okay, I’m going to keep this short and sweet but I took my whole family to go see this and I wish it were 5 hours long. Eggers does it again and I fear this may be the greatest horror movie I’ve ever seen (at least one that came out in my lifetime). From costume to setting, to sound and dialogue, this to me was bar none. He took one of the oldest retold stories of all time and brought it to life in a way that is not only just entertaining, but taps into some genuinely primal horror tropes. Darkness, death, power, love, and blood all play major themes here. Not that it's without some special effects but they are used so subtly and tastefully, I came. 

Lily Rose did more than hold her own, she triumphed. It reminded me of Nell Tiger Free in The First Omen, which I loved, but damn she is here to play. Hoult carried the weight too, demanded by the career focused devout yet eager to prove his worth husband, Eggers’ homeboy Ralph Ineson was perfect and Aaron Taylor Johnson really shined as well. 

I haven’t done any research or anything but there is a sense of authenticity that is just apparent and a devotion to the scene sets and setting that is so intentional it will really lick the chops of fans of The Witch and The Lighthouse, while also crossing a threshold to just pure enjoyment for horror fans that the aforementioned just didn’t get near to. 

Please, if you love the occult, darkness, dread, primal fear, vampires, or 19th century Europe go watch this movie in theaters. It's like The Revenant but with the Devil.

- Graydon

ALBUM RECS

Hey guys, thought I’d share an album that has been absolutely carrying my winter listening this holiday season.

What I got for ya today is “I’m the Only One You Love” by The Motifs. This is a tender, twee, and warm indie-pop record from Melbourne's, Alexis Hall. This album is full of different production pacing but has a common through line with Alexis’s subtle and pretty vocal deliveries. The Motifs only have like 2k monthly listeners on Spotify and I really can’t recommend this album and artist enough to you guys. It’s so satisfying to listen to. Also, if you like the album they did release an EP in 2024 called “Love and I…” which is also just delightful.

Favs Songs (They’re all good lol): Little Things, In A Moment, Just an Echo,  All About, Take Mine

- Grant :D 

CRONK’S UPDATE

Hello old friends,

During my Christmas break, I’ve been enjoying the finer things in life. Waking up and watching cartoons, drinking coffee, and petting the cat. I’ve also been piloting my next prestige.

The days have been a mix of playing Call of Duty, deep diving YouTube for new music, and trying to play every Guitar Hero game.

I know I’ll have to re enter the real world soon, but for now, I’ve found my peace. 

I hope you all are enjoying your holidays!

- Cronk

RECIPES

First Dinner: A semi-creamy baked spinach chicken sausage gnocchi

Never tried this and it turned out very tasty.

You’ll need: a desired amount of gnocchi, which turns out it cooks in about 2 minutes when added to boiling water, so before you even begin to bring a big pot to boil do this stuff first..

• Chop up garlic and shallots

• Cut the skins off your sausage and just get the ground up meat, or finely chop the sausages if they aren’t a natural casing.

• Start sauteing the shallots and garlic until they get tender

• Not pop that sausage in and begin to really brown it

• Now add some shitty Chardonnay and bring it to a nice boil

• Whisk up some cornstarch and chicken stock on a side bowl

• Start that water

• I added some mushrooms here

• Add that starch and stock and stir away as we get it back to a boil

• Toss spinach in here

• I splashed in some coconut milk here as well because cream is good

• Once that gnocchi is cooked and strained add to your delicious slop that you’ve kept simmering

• Stir all around and dump into a casserole dish

• Layer some bread crumbs and grate a shit ton of parmesan on top 

• I baked at 380 for about 12 minutes and a 4 minute broil finish for crust top effect

Second Dinner: Venison Stew

This one is quicker and requires a hillbilly neighbor to bestow a hefty amount of deer meat onto you. This recipe would work great with your choice of red meat btw.

• Brown your venison in a searing hot pan for 2 minutes a side then chunk/cube this very undercooked but browned meat

• Toss into the good ol Crockpot

• Once in the Crockpot, add 3-4 skinned and chunked carrots, a sweet onion, 4-5 ribs of celery, and a bunch of whole baby bella mushrooms

• Then add 2 quarts of beef stock, a cup or two of a heavy red wine (malbec, Cab, merlot..), half cup of worcestershire sauce

• Season with a healthy amount of salt, black pep, dried parsley, rosemary, really go nuts here per whatever you like

Let that baby get nice and hot and then whisk a quarter cup of cornstarch with your broth and mix back into the pot. Boom -  turn to warm and eat with some toasted grainy bread. 

My family is beginning to bicker now about if I forgot something. Please forgive me.

- Graydon

MERCH