Sometimes, when I get bored, I like to play “what if” games inside my head. The hypothetical situations I explore can range from “What if I had ordered the soup instead of the salad?” to “What would have happened if Abraham Lincoln was never assassinated?” Thanks to the crazy computer science and technology we have today, anyone can experience infinite alternate realities through things like augmented and virtual reality. Not surprisingly, these technologies seem to be most popular with people who are unsatisfied with their current reality. So, this week I bring videos that let all you unsatisfied people explore various alternate realities. From GOAT letting you experience what it would like to be a frat-bro to Parquet Courts letting you know that the universe in which they are puppets is really horrible, these videos will not only satisfy your curiosity for what could be but maybe help you feel grateful for what actually is as well.
First up is the official trailer for GOAT, which at first is a bit eye-roll inducing. It starts off like your run-of-the-mill bro movie about all the dumb antics fraternities get themselves into like parties, making girls kiss, drinking, etc. Then, you realize James Franco is in it, so you know it’s going to be weird. Based on a true story, the film is kind of an expose on the Guantanamo Bay style hazing that still goes on even though hazing is illegal. The things they make these guys do might seem unrealistic, however, one of my friends literally had to drink an entire bottle of vodka by himself and then jump off a pier into the ocean in order to join his frat. So if you’re a nerd like me, this film might be the best way to step into the alternate reality where you actually became a frat-bro without ever having to set foot onto a sticky frat house floor. The film premieres at Sundance NEXT FEST Saturday August 13th, paired with a performance by Sunflower Bean at The Theatre at Ace Hotel. Definitely check it out if you’re in Los Angeles.
Earlier this year, Parquet Courts released their fantastic fifth album, Human Performance, and now they’ve released a music video showing us just what would happen if the band were puppets instead of humans. Apparently everything would look very creepy, elderly puppets would have orgies freely, and bestiality would be chill.
Tony Kaye, the director of American History X, has just released a virtual reality documentary starring Paul McCartney talking about the early days with The Beatles. It’s so cool to be able to experience multiple time periods simultaneously through present day Paul McCartney reminiscing about the past and the 360 view letting you explore videos and art of the things and people that he is talking about. Technology is so awesome. It’s nice to see virtual reality being used for something other than video games and porn.
On the longest day of the year, Sigur Rós livestreamed their trip around the coastal ring of Iceland for over 24hrs. All throughout, they had a soundtrack being generated in real time from their song Óveður. This is a timelapse version of the stream that shows just how ridiculously beautiful Iceland is and lets you feel like you were on that incredible trip with them.
I was a 90’s kid, so I spent a lot of time on the early internet playing Shockwave games and the like. If you weren’t on the internet back then, it was a completely different place. Websites weren’t expertly designed like they are now and graphics were awful. Around 2000 things started to change, but the Gorillaz definitely flipped everything on its head when they made their website a playable game with their very first album as the soundtrack. A lot of bands have since made interactive websites, but I still think the Gorillaz version still blows everyone else’s out of the water 15 years later. Unfortunately, they’ve since changed the website, but I found a game play video to show you guys how amazing this was. You could explore an entire world in a “Geep” and could even do flips in a halfpipe. It’d be so cool if someone took the technology we have now and made a virtual reality version of it.
Francis and the Lights sampled his own song to produce “Summer Friends” for Chance the Rapper on his recent release, Coloring Book. Now we get to hear the original version of the song along with a video of Francis, Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver, and Kanye West being friends and doing some strangely cute choreography together. Now if only someone could make a virtual reality game of what it’d be like to be best friends with Kanye West…
