The length of a human life is around 80 years. You might get 100 if you're lucky. The universe is about 13.7 billion years old. The vast difference between a human lifespan and the age of the universe can be difficult to grasp — even the words we use in attempting to describe it (like "vast") are comically insufficient.
To help us visualize what a difference of eight orders of magnitude might look like, Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh have created a scale model of time in the Mojave Desert, from the Big Bang to the present day. This is really worth watching and likely to make you think some big think thoughts about your place in the universe and in your life.
Because we’re boyfrengirlfren.Screenshot: Warner Bros.
Margot Robbie’s new profile in Vogue is incredible. The article mainly dives into Robbie’s work on the much-anticipated Barbie, but in between some delightful behind-the-scenes anecdotes, it offers insight on how the Barbie film actually came to be.
First, did you know that Robbie herself went to Mattel to get the film rights? In 2018, she approached the toy company’s CEO and pitched her company—LuckyChap—as the production outfit that would do right by Barbie. After she got the rights, she reached out to director Greta Gerwig, who agreed to do the film as long as she and Noah Baumbach were the ones penning the script. LuckyChap protected Gerwig and Baumbach from “two ginormous companies”—Mattel and Warner Bros.—while they wrote the script, and Robbie says that “Greta wrote an abstract poem about Barbie” that apparently“shares some similarities with the Apostles’ Creed,” according to Gerwig. Do I know what this means? Absolutely not. Am I extremely excited anyway? Yes. This is incredibly bonkers and I’m all in on the Barbie train.
We haven’t even gotten to Ken (Ryan Gosling) yet. According to Gerwig, “Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world. That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.” GRETA GERWIG, YOUR MIND? I cannot handle this level of absurdity and wonder. Imagine writing a poem about Barbie similar to the one of the most iconic Christian prayers and then saying that this film is based on an inversion of the Judeo-Christian creation myth? I cannot overstate how wild, how ridiculous, how absolutely feral I am going to be over this film.
The article states that “In Barbieland, Ken is basically another fashion accessory.” There’s apparently a line delivered by the film’s narrator (Helen Mirren), where she says “Barbie has a great day every day. Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him.”
There’s also this fun bit of trivia: “Every Sunday morning, cast and crew were invited to watch a movie that served as a reference for Barbie.”Selections included The Red Shoes and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. “They called this ‘movie church’.”
There’s so much more here—about Ken, about how the Barbies found themselves, about Robbie, and about the film—and it’s so apparent that Robbie understands exactly what she’s doing. Even if Barbie is a children’s toy, there is so much more to what Barbie is, what the brand is, and what people think about her. This film is going to be bananas. Head to Vogue to read the whole profile.
For the NY Times, Jamelle Bouie takes a look at the legislation that Republicans around the country are pushing and, in the style of FDR's Four Freedoms speech, outlines what goals they are attempting to achieve.
There is the freedom to control — to restrict the bodily autonomy of women and repress the existence of anyone who does not conform to traditional gender roles.
There is the freedom to exploit — to allow the owners of business and capital to weaken labor and take advantage of workers as they see fit.
There is the freedom to censor — to suppress ideas that challenge and threaten the ideologies of the ruling class.
And there is the freedom to menace — to carry weapons wherever you please, to brandish them in public, to turn the right of self-defense into a right to threaten other people.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
It’s been over two years since Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, the duo formerly known as the robotic electronic musicians Daft Punk, announced they would be parting ways. But this month marks the 10th anniversary of their last album, Random Access Memories—and to celebrate, there’s one more slice of sci-fi-tinged goodness to share.
This week saw the release of a new anniversary edition of Random Access Memories, containing a second disc of previously unreleased tracks and unfinished drafts—including a 2013 demo with Julian Casablancas and the Voidz called “Infinity Repeating.” With it came the very last Daft Punk music video.
Daft Punk - Infinity Repeating (2013 Demo) [ft. Julian Casablancas + The Voidz]
Directed by Warren Fu and produced by Partizan Studio, the video itself is as hypnotic as the beats of the track itself, a cyclical journey through animation styles and aesthetics charting the evolution of human life on Earth—from the oceans to a cybernetically enhanced future burning itself up with the pace of progress.
It’s a simple, but fascinating visual accompaniment, especially (and appropriately) when on loop—and a fitting farewell to the legendary sci-fi-infused aesthetic of Daft Punk, presented here in a repeating infinite as both final, and yet also forever.
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