Hivemind Times Issue #51

Welcome To The Hivemind Times!

My dear freakazoids I hope this newsletter finds you swell. The days are finally getting shorter and the fish are starting to bite.

We have returned from our fun little trip out to Portland to cover the PBR music fest and boy was it fun. We got to do some insane interviews with artists you would never believe they would let us talk to or even get near! Also the crowd there was super chill, it honestly restored my faith in live music festivals. I’ll be sharing some cool pictures of us and our pal Quickly, Quickly who was nice enough to show us some slimy bars. 

Last video with Molly came out this week that I thought was super funny - we love having her on so please go watch it if you haven’t. As for overall morale at the office the guys are buzzing and the river of creativity flows effortlessly through our veins so stay tuned. In the meantime enjoy the 51st issue of The Hivemind Times. 

Go forth and be the person you always wanted to be.

- Riley & Graydon

WEEKLY PLAYLIST

Tapped into what is really homebase for me: Songs that could make a drunken man spark up and weep.

This collection of tunes is vintage yearning stuff. Feel free to crack one open and stare off into space. Also a great source for the 1 am touch tunes search if you find yourself in a sticky floored dim pool hall in need of a soul purge. 

Enjoy with caution but please always try and remain open enough to allow music to penetrate to the emotional depths it deserves to go.

- Graydon

CRONK’S UPDATE

I wanted to share some exciting personal news, me and my lovely girlfriend just closed on our very first house!!!!!!

While I’ll still be in Michigan full-time working for Hivemind, I’ll be spending weekends at my little getaway in Malibu. This will be a great little spot for my Ford Explorer and cat, hell maybe I’ll have a few friends over every now and again. Life is about relaxing and enjoying yourself. That's why we should all have a nice weekend getaway in sunny Malibu.

Designed by renowned architect Jay Vanos, AIA, it offers an expansive 10,000+ square foot two-story main house with a thoughtfully designed floor plan and amenities that are second to none. It includes 6 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 4 powder rooms, spacious living areas, a show kitchen, a chef's kitchen with private entrance, theater room, 18.5-foot Optima sliding glass doors, basement, gym spa, grand-scale pool, hot tub, grotto, amphitheater, abundant parking, room for a tennis court, and an approximately 750 square foot separate luxury guest house.

Not everyone is lucky enough to buy a house at 23, but thanks to this very newsletter, I’ve become an incredibly wealthy young man. I'd like to thank you all for subscribing and funding this endeavor..

- Cronk

ALBUM RECS

Hello. How is it? What is that? This week in music Quadeca has been stealing the show with his release of the long awaited Vanisher, Horizen Scraper, and rightfully so. 

I wanted to highlight an album that I've been absolutely loving since it was released last Friday that may have gone under a few radars, since it came out the same day as Quadeca’s album. 

“Autofiction” by Far Caspian is true return to form from his 2021 debut “Ways to Get Out”. Autofiction is an indie rock album (sad mode). This album is packed full of tons of insane versatility within the genre, and I'm sure plenty of you who like to listen to a dude singing muffled sad shit behind a guitar are going to absolutely love this thing. 

Fav Songs: The Sound of Changing Place, Here is Now, An Outstretched Hand/…., Window, Whim

If you dig any of this awesome stuff I highly recommend checking out the aforementioned “Ways to Get Out”. One of my favorite albums ever.

- Grant

MOVIE REVIEW

A Prophet (2009)

Not a crazy review or anything but I am chipping away at 23, now 22 movies I hadn’t seen on the NYT best 100 movies of the 21st century. 

I watched A Prophet by Jacques Audlard and as a fan of a gritty modern French crime movie i.e La Haine, this film did scratch an itch that I find hard to reach often. 

A man with no family and no ability to read or write finds himself locked up in prison. After doing a dirty deed for some Corsican gangsters he finds himself doing quest after quest and eventually assimilating to the prison gangster lifestyle. Does his head get too big? Does he play both sides? Do real gangsters exist in Corsica? I don’t fucking know, watch the movie - it was dope and chill and weird. It’s like 2 dollars on Amazon rn to rent or illegally download it. I do not care. Also, it’s the same director who did Emilia Perez which makes it all that stranger.

3.5 stars.

- Graydon (Hugefilmguy on Letterboxd)

BEST WAYS TO BEAT THE HEAT

RETURN OF SHVINGI INGËBÖRKSEN

Tour de France and the Future of Martyrdom

The 2025 Tour de France - a three week cycling spectacular - will have 52,500 of total elevation gained over 21 stages.  Really it’s a battle of pain tolerance as lactic acid builds up in your muscles.  How long can you take it? 

Part of the appeal as a spectator, of course, is the voyeurism of suffering.  There is something primal about watching other humans self-flagellate   Or maybe not primal, but biblical.  As secular as one could be, there is still something soul-scratching when another person goes past their physical or mental limit for a specific purpose.  Whether that is to save my soul, or win a bike race.

This is not the same as rubbernecking a 25-car pile-up or watching a train derail at high speed.  I don’t think it’s as twisted as it could be made out.  It may be that we enjoy seeing people physically sacrifice themselves this way because it proves to us that the mind is more powerful than the body.

It’s also not the same as real-deal global suffering.  Based on the current status quo, it seems clear that standard human minds cannot really contemplate large-scale suffering.  It is amazingly difficult to make it concrete (unless, of course, you are in the thick of it).

And it’s not just sacrifice, it’s sacrifice for a purpose, or martyrdom.  I’m not lighting myself on fire just for shits and giggles; I want the Dalai Lama to return from exile.  Or, a less extreme example, when your old grandmother refuses your offer of help making dinner because she would prefer to suffer and make you feel sort of guilty about it.  If you really think about it, this is a lot of what motivates people on a daily basis.

If we are rapidly approaching the possibility of a post-labor, post-currency “Western World” where no one works because AI does it better and everyone gets a universal income of meal pouches or “chits” or whatever, where does our appreciation of suffering go?  What happens when no one says “I built this house with my own hands”; “I worked for ten years to make partner”; “I took on weekend jobs to provide for my kids” anymore?  Does our Abrahamic appreciation for martyrdom go with it?  If so, does our motivation for life go too?

- Shvingi Ingëbörksen

PBR MUSIC FEST

Some silly camera roll photos from Portland

THIS WEEK’S COMICS

Meet the epically talented Isaac who is gonna be expanding some classic bits and deepening the lore of some of your favorite fictional places. I’m excited to see where this takes us!

Follow em at @isaacrobichau.art

MERCH