🥒✨The Nexialist #0185

rebeca andrade | transvestigation | amsterdam in the summer | cucumber time | dutch last names | fantasmas | fractals in nature | dark oxygen | ai to talk to animals | love the bomb | volume | guess

Aug 08, 2024

welcome to your weekly chunky-zeitgeist-butter jar, the nexialist

hey, you! i hope this message finds you feeling the ~~ozempic~~ olympic spirit. this week i’m so proud to say i collaborated with

floatvibes

, one of my favorite newsletters/podcasts (vibes em análise). i went more in-depth into topics i’ve brought here before: fruity boys (tn#182), clowns in the mainstream (tn#181) and some realizations/questions about brazilian identity in these olympics. it’s in portuguese, for those of you who understand it: homens frutados e meio-bichas, pop palhaçaria e (des)crentes olímpicos.

this edition, in true nexialist fashion, goes from olympics, amsterdam and dutch things, to must-watch series, nature and discoveries and some bangers for your playlist. i hope you enjoy! 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

Buy Me a Coffee? ☕️

🇧🇷rebeca andrade

this photo makes me so emotional, and i don’t even like to follow sports. three black women made it to the top of gymnastics, and to see the sorority, sportsmanship and (even if not on purpose) the embodiment of ubunto maximum “i am because we are” is extremely powerful, especially after the shit-show of the conservatives around the opening (tn#184). just three months after reclaiming green and yellow (tn#172) from brazil’s far-right, it’s inspiring to see brazil united, even if for a few days, cheering for rebeca and our other athletes.

she’s not only a top-tier athlete, but she “is the moment,” punching the zeitgeist in the chest. from the favela to the olympus. c’mon, her songs of choice were bangers by anitta and beyoncé. she is also so charismatic: when asked what goes in her mind just before her performance, she went viral for saying she was thinking of the recipes she will cook when going back to Brazil.

i’m so proud to see the diversity of our team, our two gold medals were so far were earned by black women, rebeca andrade and beatriz souza, we have the largest openly LGBTQIA+ team, more women than men, and our first athelete competing both in the olympics and paralympics, bruna alexandre. go, brazil!

brainsparks: reclaiming green and yellow (tn#172), olympic outrage (tn#184)

🏳️‍⚧️transvestigation

smash.board

A post shared by @smash.board

i had never heard about transvestigation before. it’s so horrible to know people are so obsessed to know what genitals people have and how damaging that can be. cis people can also suffer from the disease that is transphobia. i mean, get over it.

In Imane Khelif’s recent story, we delve into travestigation, its impact, and its origins dating back to Nazi Germany.

brainsparks: dehumanizing trans folks (tn#118), brazil elects two trans women (tn#90), queering the future (tn#24)

🇳🇱amsterdam in the summer

shifting gears a bit, the appeared on my youtube and i was tearing up. not that amsterdam is ugly the rest of year, but this city is magical in the summer. it’s so nice to see spots that i see everyday on video.

brainsparks: that amsterdam photo (tn#122), drugs from amsterdam (tn#105), tesla things in amsterdam (tn#12)

🥒cucumber time

Komkommertijd: Cucumber time is the name for a certain period of the year, especially in the summer, when there is little news to report because politicians and many others are on holiday.

thank you,

Michell Zappa

for sharing this, which has been added to my vocabulary. while focused on the news and political news, it can also be used for work (if not, i will start using it). in brazil, we have the saying “the year starts only after carnaval” but it is more related to the amount of work. and i didn’t know we had this cultural similarity. i also thought: what a privilege to have a whole season of political peacefulness, in brazil it seems there’s always turmoil. (this made me crave tzatziki)

brainsparks: the productivity paradox (tn#49)

🍑dutch last names

driplist

A post shared by @driplist

i had heard funny dutch last names a few times (one of them being komkommer), and this video taught me something new. last names like Gekkehuis (Madhouse), Naaktgeboren (Born naked), Borst (breast), Uittenbroek (out of his pants) and Spring in 't Veld (Jump in the Field) are other examples.

the lore goes that when the napoleon’s conquerors set foot in the netherlands, they obliged locals to have a family name, which was not common here. some people, thinking this would not be permanent, chose absurd names in protest, which are carried until today. thank them, not me.

brainsparks: dutch directness aka speakability (tn#104), how the dutch beat the ocean (tn#173)

👻fantasmas

i started watching fantasmas this week, the show by julio torres, and i’m in love. it’s a whimsical sci-fi story about julio, who after being struck by lighting in his childhood, he sees the world differently and is allergic to the color yellow. he can feel the inner life of shapes, colors and numbers. while set in some dystopic cyberpunk future where corporations have taken over, it’s reminiscent of my childhood’s shows, with crafty and unfinished sets, and fun costumes. and the casting is amazing, bringing known actors from different universes. it’s worth the watch.

brainsparks: play-full future (tn#121), castelo ra tim bum (tn#159), age of reenchantment (tn#123)

❄️fractals in nature

such a fun class about this mystery of life, why are so many things fractal shaped? it made me feel like ai already got this pattern. the animations made me think of the ai-generated videos i share here sometimes. the only part i disagreed is how he calls rivers non-living, as the indigenous watu say, it’s an intelligent living entity (tn#112).

brainsparks: interstitium (tn#151), flying rivers (tn#154), ancestral future (tn#112), rivers of life (tn#146)

🪨dark oxygen

this is quite exciting to learn. so far we thought the only way to get oxygen was through photosynthesis, but this discovery shows otherwise.

Scientists have found evidence that metals naturally occurring on the ocean floor may be able to produce oxygen — a potential “game changer” they say could change our understanding of the origins of life on Earth.

brainsparks: the oceans are one (tn#140)

🐘ai to talk to animals

recently i talked about cyborgs that use technology to listen to earth (tn#179). it turns out (or it’s turning out) that ai can also help us communicate with animals. it’s fascinating that these models can decipher, at least their sound communication, as we know they have other ways of communicating). also, these scientists have so much passion about their work that it’s inspiring.

Researchers hope that discoveries along the way will continue to have an impact on our appreciation and protection of the species we share the planet with.

brainsparks: cyborg art (tn#179), do you speak whale? (tn#20)

💣love the bomb

i’ve been hooked to this new song by glass animals, from their album i love you so f***ing much. a song about discovering the dark side of your significant others.

brainsparks: linear opposites or closely related (tn#126), emotional plurality (tn#15)

🎛️volume

this track is also delicious, and the video so good. mixing technology and dance. pump up the volume. it reminded me of the first mtv videos. btw, mtv inaugurated august 1st, 43 years ago. you can watch the first hour here (tn#31)

brainsparks: mtv premiere (tn#31)

🩲guess

this banger has been on repeat here. you know already i’m a brat, and it’s impressive how many amazing artists she’s getting to join her. seeing billie in all her lesbianness is just so much fun. loving this wave of sapphic pop on top of the charts.

brainsparks: lesbian gaze, dyke camp (tn#12), good luck babe (tn#169)

see you next week, bombs 💣✨

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