James Frey's Blog, page 25
December 27, 2023
Ken Block’s Finale
Elecktrikhana Two: One More Playground is an epic exhibition of car control and cinematography.
Before we tragically lost driving and racing legend Ken Block at the beginning of this year, he had already filmed one last Gymkhana-style video with his Hoonigan crew. That video finally dropped today, and it’s absolutely epic.
“Electrikhana Two: One More Playground; Mexico City in the Audi S1 Hoonitron” features, of course, Block’s incredible driving talents, Hoonigan’s delightful attention to detail, and this bizarre electric Audi that’s somewhere between a rally car and a spaceship going wild in Mexico’s capital.
December 19, 2023
Always and Forever
It’s becoming popular to get inked with a barcode so you can flash your flesh to turn on music. But the codes can stop working as skin sags and ink fades.
By Megan Graham
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CAM POLLACK/WSJ; ISTOCK, SPOTIFY (2)Mary Haley has the perfect party trick: a barcode-like tattoo of nearly two dozen fine lines that, when scanned with a Spotify music app, prompts a phone to play “Mambo No. 5” by Lou Bega.
Haley, who is 33 and runs a marketing agency in Skowhegan, Maine, got the Spotify tattoo in early 2022. When she moonlights as a waitress at a local snowmobiler bar, guests will sometimes ask her what song it plays. She often tells them, ‘You have to scan it.’ If they do, they are rewarded with lyrics that include the line, “A little bit of Mary all night long.”
Just how long the tattoo will perform as advertised is a painful subject. A growing cadre of music fans have joined the Spotify tattoo craze as a conversation starter or a way to commemorate sentimental favorites like wedding first-dance songs. But while many on social media tout the tats and how well they scan, some are starting to discover that nothing in life is permanent, even tattoos. Over time, ink fades. As skin ages it may warp the lines.
Haley said her tattoo artist tried to ward off the ravages of time by making the lines thinner than normal. “Eventually, they will get fuzzy, like regular tattoos,” said Haley, who also has eight other tattoos.
December 18, 2023
America Now
The notion of ‘decline’ is too crude to capture what is happening to the US in the 21st century
by JANAN GANESH
The Premier League’s two top teams, Arsenal and Liverpool, are US-owned © Phil Noble/ReutersWhen the top two teams in the Premier League go at each other this weekend, America can’t lose. Arsenal and Liverpool, like AC Milan, Roma, Marseille, Lyon, Chelsea and (for now) Manchester United, are both US-owned. In 1994, when the nation last hosted the World Cup, it didn’t even have a domestic league. When it next does so in 2026, it should have a major proprietorial role in at least three European ones. The planet’s favourite game is being steered to a considerable extent from American boardrooms.
Perhaps your test of cultural influence is higher-minded than that. Well, consider that US universities continue to dominate world rankings. Or that America accounts for 45 per cent of art sales by value, according to UBS, which is more than Britain and China, the next two markets, combined. To attend the Venice Biennale now is to enter a new Jazz Age in which experts from all over the world vie to advise American patrons on how to spend the spoils of their economic boom.
December 16, 2023
A Wave Pulse On A String
Playing the guitar is an art form. But the good vibrations you hear are a science.
PERHAPS THE MOST iconic instrument in modern rock is the guitar. It’s really just a bunch of strings stretched across a board, which you can strum to make awesome tunes, thanks to the physics of waves and sound.
Let’s start with a demo you could probably repeat at home. Get a nice string—one that’s sort of thick—and lay it out in a straight line on the floor. Now grab one free end and give it a side-to-side shake. Here’s what it might look like….
More Number Four
I Am Number Four was a teen sci-fi movie released in 2011 by Dreamworks Pictures. Based on the novel of the same name by Pittacus Lore (a pseudonym for co-authors James Frey and Jobie Hughes), the story followed John Smith, one of nine alien children hiding on Earth from villainous extraterrestrials out to kill them.
The movie starred Alex Pettyfer as John/Number Four alongside Dianna Agron, Teresa Palmer, and Timothy Olyphant. It was directed by D.J. Caruso and produced by Michael Bay. Reviews were mixed but it performed decently at the box office, earning about $150 million globally.
Its ending clearly set up sequels, with John and his guardian Henri escaping the carnage to find more of the nine alien children scattered across Earth. The book it was based on was also the first in a series, making a movie franchise seem likely.
December 15, 2023
Atouk of the Morning
Hundreds of genetic variants carried by Neanderthals and Denisovans are shared by people who like to get up early.
by Carl Zimmer
Neanderthals were morning people, a new study suggests. And some humans today who like getting up early might credit genes they inherited from their Neanderthal ancestors.
The new study compared DNA in living humans to genetic material retrieved from Neanderthal fossils. It turns out that Neanderthals carried some of the same clock-related genetic variants as do people who report being early risers.
Since the 1990s, studies of Neanderthal DNA have exposed our species’ intertwined history. About 700,000 years ago, our lineages split apart, most likely in Africa. While the ancestors of modern humans largely stayed in Africa, the Neanderthal lineage migrated into Eurasia.
About 400,000 years ago, the population split in two. The hominins who spread west became Neanderthals. Their cousins to the east evolved into a group known as Denisovans.
The two groups lived for hundreds of thousands of years, hunting game and gathering plants, before disappearing from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago. By then, modern humans had expanded out of Africa, sometimes interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
And today, fragments of their DNA can be found in most living humans.
December 14, 2023
Amazon Placing Lasers In Space!
Amazon will include a key speed-boosting technology in its coming Project Kuiper internet satellites, the company announced Thursday.
Amazon says it tested the laser link tech successfully during its recent Protoflight mission. Traditionally, satellites are limited to sending data between an individual spacecraft and the ground. Laser links connect satellites to each other.
The Kuiper satellites’ “optical inter-satellite links,” also known as OISLs, serve as a way to transmit data through space. Laser links are a feature that Elon Musk’s SpaceX began introducing in later generations of its Starlink satellites. The links help improve both the latency and speed of these networks.
“With optical inter-satellite links across our satellite constellation, Project Kuiper will effectively operate as a mesh network in space,” Rajeev Badyal, Amazon’s Project Kuiper vice president of technology, said in a statement.
November 8, 2023
November 7, 2023
November 6, 2023
FRIGHT KREWE Renewed
By Joe Otterson
DreamWorks AnimationThe animated horror series “Fright Krewe” has been renewed for Season 2 at Hulu and Peacock, Variety has learned exclusively.
The 10-episode first season was released on Oct. 2. The second season is expected to launch in 2024, though an exact premiere date has not been set.
The series hails from creators Eli Roth and James Frey and DreamWorks Animation. According to the official logline, “An ancient prophecy and a Voodoo Queen put misfit teens in charge of saving New Orleans from the biggest demonic threat it’s faced in almost two centuries. But, honestly? Saving the world might be easier than becoming friends.”
The main voice cast of “Fright Krewe” consists of Sydney Mikayla as Soleil, Tim Johnson Jr. as Maybe, Grace Lu as Missy, Chester Rushing as Stanley, Terrence Little Gardenhigh as Pat, and Jacques Colimon as Belial. The recurring cast in Season 1 included: Vanessa Hudgens, Josh Richards, X Mayo, Rob Paulsen, JoNell Kennedy, Melanie Laurent, Chris Jai Alex, Reggie Watkins, Cherise Boothe, Keston John, Grey Delisle and Krizia Bajos.
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