rolling stone + billionaire disease + the summer hikaru died
weather: 🌤️ clear, but there's a threatening cloud over the mountains. last night, lightning and thunder without rain
critters: red-tailed hawk, unidentified hummingbirds, unidentified large sulphur
yesterday's errands were almost totally pointless, the best kind of errand. i needed soap and wound up getting soap, candles, boba tea, and the summer double issue of rolling stone. the print edition has a good article-to-advertisement ratio (and for writing nicely about my beloved haute and freddy)
from its article about billionaire psychopathology, by alex morris:
A Gilded Age oligarch who exploited his workers or cheated his customers might build a library or a concert hall or train station to burnish his image. Now, the technocrats have framed their contribution as an algorithmically guaranteed utopia that will bring about the salvation of mankind.
maybe that's the difference between the rich who don't live in the world and the rich who do. i read somewhere once about rockefeller or carnegie having to step over sleeping hobos to get into his office. today's robber barons could never. the trauma would force them to destroy public transit all over again
the day before yesterday i watched the first episodes of the summer hikaru died with S. the animation is great, but i'm still thinking about how many of the cinematic decisions build a creepy, off-kilter, noided feeling. when it isn't going insane, it nails the miserable atmosphere of summer heat. the high contrast light and shadow in a rural setting make the place feel borderline post-apocalyptic
these are not the vibes or cinematography of a story with a happy ending, if the plot and the gay coding weren't hints enough. excellent beginning, and i hope it sticks the landing