Hivemind Times Issue #56

Welcome To The Hivemind Times!

Loyal readers and valued pals hope this week’s Hivemind Times finds you well. 

For me personally this week has been full of excitement and most importantly hope, the NFL season has begun. With that came the return of Cheapseats too and I hope you guys have been enjoying those videos as we get back up and running. For those of you that are not big football fans don’t worry the other channels will be returning in full steam this next week. 

We have so much fun stuff planned for this fall I am teeming with excitement. Enjoy this 56th issue of the times and thanks for reading!

- Riley & Graydon

WEEKLY PLAYLIST

Truly random vibes from Graydon for fall inspo.

Leaning old, go figure.

CRONK’S UPDATE

I really did it this time 

This is my new to new 2011 Ford E150 Tuscany conversion van.

I have been talking about buying a van since February, it kinda dawned on me that now that I’m an adult I could get a car loan. I’ve always wanted to tour as a musician but usually the thing stopping a band or music project from touring is lack of van.

So when Rozey asked me to play drums on his tour with Quadeca this fall I knew it was time to run my credit.

So what makes this van special? Well vans aren’t just vans, they’re a blank slate from the factory. Conversion vans are unique because a 3rd party company (in this case Tuscany) buys the blank cargo van from Ford, then they outfit it with carpet and an interior and nice seats. Conversion vans were especially popular in the early 2000s but sort of died down. This is literally the newest conversion van I could find within 500 miles. Me and Tommy Fleece drove 3 hours straight from Detroit to Cleveland with no bathroom breaks to buy it in the middle of the night.

Man this thing is clean literally our hearts sank when we pulled into the parking lot and seen this thing glimmering in a dark dealership parking lot next to Waffle House.

This will be the first of many van segments, consider this an introduction. Next week will include a full tour.

- Cronk

MOVIE REVIEW

Thoughts on Caught Stealing (POTENTIAL SPOILERS)

I was torn between going to see Highest 2 Lowest, the new Spike Lee joint or Caught Stealing, the newest film from Darren Aronofsky. To be honest the most recent Spike Lee movies haven’t really blown me away and I have for whatever reason become an Austin Butler defender and obviously have always been a big fan of Aronofsky’s films i.e Black Swan, Requiem For A Dream, The Whale in particular. 

Well if you are like me and love those movies this one is nothing like that. Not necessarily in the worst way it’s just a massive departure from the signature style I have become accustomed to from old Darren.

This movie follows Butler who is a former highschool baseball star turned lower east side bad boy bartender. His romantic partner, Zoe Kravitz, sees something in him but he has to get his priorities together and quit living in the past. Oh and he is a mommas boy who is a die hard SF Giants fan.

After agreeing to house sit punk rock Daemon Targaryen’s cat AB is quickly swept up in some criminal underground madness. This leads us on a spiral of indiscriminate murders, foot chases, gore porn, and the formation of a beautiful friendship between man and cat. 

This movie is quirky and often funny but more often just flat out high octane violence and suspense. Honestly feels like Darren is dipping into a Guy Ritchie bag here a la Lock, Stock, and Two Smocking Barrels. So if that is your vibe I do think there is plenty here to enjoy and I did for the most part. 

Overall though, it left me with very little and just felt like Darren got a blank check and decided to have a blast, and good for him. But with his legacy and filmography I guess I was just a little disappointed not having my guts ripped out. 

I’m only like 12 hrs removed from seeing this so maybe the message will reveal itself over time and it was a fun theatrical watch so I encourage you all to go check it out.

- Graydon

WHO IS WINNING SUPERBOWL LX

ALBUM RECS

Larry Heard's OG Chicago house band. This is where it all started..Detroit might be home to techno but Chicago is the oven that cooked up house and man did they do a good job. It is never a bad time to get hip or revisit the roots of one of the most inclusive and inventive genres to ever come out of lil old America.

QUINN’S CHEMISTRY CLASS

My favorite mobile game

I don’t feel like doing a technical write up on mixing with compression right now, so, I am going to do a short article on my favorite mobile game, “Brawl Stars” and why you should play it (or add me so we can grind ranked. My Player ID is HugeTama.).

Brawl Stars is a top-down multiplayer battle arena, hero shooter developed by Supercell, the same developer that made Clash Royale and Clash of Clans. Brawl Stars is just as well crafted as Clash Royale, but without the predatory microtransactions and unavoidable pay-to-win disgusting bullshit. 

It might be the most free-to-play friendly Supercell game unless you count the pile of shit called Mo.co. The microtransactions it does have are usually really good deals and worth the money if you enjoy the game.

Now, to the gameplay.

The actual gameplay consists of you, or your team, running around and battling other players, or teams of players, in many different game modes. You can choose between 94 unique brawlers and all of them have unique mechanics. The actual gameplay mechanics are pretty straightforward and easy to get the hang of, it is literally a 4 button game. That being said, it is deceptively deep how technical the mechanics and strategy can be.

There is a movement stick on the left side of the screen and shoot, gadget, super, and hyper buttons on the right side of the screen. The shoot button is also a joystick that you use to aim your shots or click to auto-aim in certain situations. Each brawler has 2 different gadgets you choose from before the battle starts, which are abilities unique to each brawler that go on cool-down after being used. Supers are also unique to each brawler and are abilities on a joystick that charge by doing damage (and sometimes other methods). Hypers are similar to supers, but take longer to charge and are way more powerful.

Each brawler has a loadout that you pick before each battle that consists of a gadget, a star power, and 2 gears. Brawlers have 2 gadgets and 2 starpowers to choose from that are unique to each brawler and there are 6 gears that every brawler has. Starpowers are passives that synergize with each brawler’s kit and gears are perks or stat buffs. There are also pins and sprays, which are little emotes you can use to make fun of the other team for sucking shit or make fun of your teammates for being clueless npcs.

There are two main match types; showdown and 3v3. Either of them are relatively short games of around 3 or 4 minutes, so it is easy to just hop on for a bit if you have a little time, but the queue times are really short so it is also fine to grind for hours. Showdown is a battle royale game mode, that only psychos play, with solo, duo, and trio modes where you kill other players to knock them out and collect “power cubes” that are dropped after a kill, which upgrade your stats.

In solo, you only get one life, but in duo and trio, you have a respawn timer and are knocked out once the entire team is dead at the same time. There are six main 3v3 modes which consist of two teams of three players, each team competing to complete a goal unique to each game mode. The six main 3v3 modes are called Brawl Ball, Gem Grab, Bounty/Wipeout, Heist, Hot Zone, and Knockout. From the wiki, here are short descriptions of each.

Brawl Ball: A soccer-inspired game mode where two teams of three (or five in 5v5 Brawl Ball) attempt to score by shooting a ball into the opponents’ goal. The game ends if one team scores two points or if one team has a point advantage after two minutes. Other variants were later added, modeled after different sports like basketball, volleyball, and ice hockey.

Gem Grab: Gems spawn in the middle of the map, and two teams of three Brawlers compete to collect the highest number possible. A team wins if they gather and hold at least ten Gems for 15 seconds. If both teams have ten or more Gems and the countdown is active but tied, the timer pauses until one team takes the lead.

Wipeout and Bounty: Both are deathmatch-style modes. In Wipeout, two teams of three or five must defeat 10 or 20 enemy Brawlers. In Bounty, teams earn points by defeating opponents, with Brawlers becoming worth more points after each elimination. A special blue star determines ties in overtime.

Heist: Two teams of three Brawlers each attempt to destroy the opponents’ heavily fortified safe near their spawn point while defending their own.

Hot Zone: A king-of-the-hill mode where two teams of three Brawlers must control Hot Zones for a combined total of 100 seconds. The match ends when this requirement is met or when one team has stayed in the Hot Zones longer by the end of the timer. A 2v2 version was later introduced during special events.

Knockout: A high-stakes deathmatch where players cannot respawn. Rounds are won by eliminating the entire enemy team, and the first team to win two rounds claims victory. A five-player variation adds a twist: each elimination boosts the surviving teammates’ damage and health.

There are also a lot of other less popular game modes and events with even more game modes all the time. There is also ranked (what I normally play), which consists of the six main 3v3 modes and you would be surprised how insanely cracked some people are at this game.

There are also so many cosmetics you can collect and flex on people if you are into that. It does take a while to unlock and level up all the brawlers when you first download the game, which honestly sucks. Once you have everything unlocked though, this game is so much fucking fun and can be taken seriously enough for long grind sessions full of beautiful peaks and deep, dark valleys of emotion. There is so much variety, and all of the brawler mechanics are unique and very well designed and synergize with each other, allowing you to play around with different builds and team comps.

In my opinion, it is the best mobile game I have come across. Give it a try.

- Quinn

SPORTS

Did Pablo Torre uncover a league wide scam that is allowing NBA owners to cheat the salary cap?

If you are an NBA fan you have probably seen the story this week about Steve Ballmer (the owner of the Clippers) and his alleged slick way of securing Kawhi Leanord as a free agent years ago. The short of it is that via a shell company KL2 that belongs to Kawhi, he has been able to receive somewhere around 7 million additional dollars a year. Now this reeks of financial finagling for a few reasons. 

The general illegitimate nature of this company and pretty much zero involvement from Kawhi and eventual bankruptcy brought to light the potential scheme that is here. 

It seems pretty clear that the former Microsoft CEO Ballmer created a way to guarantee Kawhi more money than any other franchise could while also slipping by the NBA salary cap and luxury tax. 

The irony here is that Kawhi’s tenure has been plagued with injury and overall lack of post season success. With a lot left to be proven and unseen this could very well end up getting swept under the rug and come tip off of the 25/26 season we never hear about it again ORRRR a massive scandal poisons the well of parody in the league and Ballmer is forced to sell, Kawhi faces fraud charges, and the richest owner has to abandon one of the biggest loser franchises one year after debuting a state of the art new arena. 

I love dirty money scandals and will be patiently awaiting the next details.

- Graydon

THIS WEEK’S COMICS

FRIENDS UPDATE

Our pal Munch opened up a vintage shop!

I opened a vintage shop in Dearborn called Overtime Print Shop and you should definitely come say hi!! We’re open Wednesday–Saturday from 12PM–5PM.

You can dig through our racks of vintage, grab an original piece, or snag a blank and watch us print it live like a fashion Benihana. I spent months curating the collection and we’re always rotating inventory, so every visit feels like a new drop. Expect plenty of graphic tees, denim, hoodies, crewnecks, rugby polos & way more.

If you can’t make it in person, give us a follow at @overtimeprintshop and say hi in the DMs so I know someone actually read this and I didn’t just blow $10,000 on a hive-mind newsletter ad LOL. 5711 Schaefer Rd, Dearborn, MI 48126.

- Munch

MERCH