screenshot: ubuweb

Popula Film Club: ubuweb

so many kinds of escape this week

May 29, 2020 3:00PM EDT

Editor.

Assuming that you’ll be able to tear yourself away from the news, which… maybe. And that would probably be a good idea, at least for a while. Order in something lovely to eat. Walk outside (in your mask).

And if you have a moment to relax and watch something without having to contribute one more dollar to any plutocrats? Why not fall in love with the magical ubuweb, the noncommercial repository of avant-garde materials founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith (@kg_ubu). Revolutionary on many fronts, and an inspiration to us at Popula. You can get lost forever in there.

A few selections I’ve enjoyed recently:

Television Delivers People (Richard Serra, 1973)

A McLuhanesque statement from the celebrated sculptor, who was just 35 at the time. What a thing! I had no idea.

Eno (dir. Alfi Sinniger, as Alfons Sinniger, 1973)

A 26-minute documentary. Wow. Swanning about in a blue kimono with no shirt underneath, a long-haired young Eno smokes cigarettes and fools around in the studio, recording thrillingly familiar bits of Here come the Warm Jets; a costumer sews up stage gear that he can’t sit down in; there are clips of old Roxy Music gigs and snippets of artwork; the Portsmouth Sinfonia makes an appearance. A rare treat for those of us d’un certain âge.

The Adventures of a Nurse (Parts I and II) (Eleanor Antin, 1976)

Unbelievably lush and weird narratives from a fantastical woman artist playing with hand-painted paper dolls. Antin growls, whispers, shouts, sings, disturbs, and delights, acting out all the frustrations of 1976, for much of the film seated on a pink bedspread and wearing a nurse’s uniform. So, so great.

Profile Of A Writer: Borges (dir. David Wheatley, 1983)

An 80-minute documentary of Jorge Luis Borges, full of charming conversations with the great man at home in Buenos Aires. Helps to have some Spanish; though it’s almost all in English, there are dramatizations of scenes from his work and a little bit of talk in Spanish. Worth the price of admission just to hear him pronounce “Bertrand Russell.”

“I want the dream to have its way with me.”

The Popula Film Club brings you worthwhile options to stream, chosen with a view to quality, and to withholding as much money as possible from the oligarchs and monopolists of Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and the like.

Please send your recommendations to submissions@popula.com with the subject line, POPULA FILM CLUB.

Comments on Popula Film Club: ubuweb

Want to leave a comment? Commenting is available to subscribers only. Subscribe Now for unlimited access to Popula—and join our conversations.

Each comment or response costs a tiny ETH fee of 2.0E-5 (about 5¢ in Ethereum cryptocurrency), payable from your Metamask.io wallet (the wallet is free, and takes just a moment to add to your browser). This system helps protect Popula conversations from trolls, fakers, Cambridges Analytica and other malign influences.

If you haven’t got any ETH yet and you’re a Popula subscriber, please write to hey@popula.com with your subscriber email address and MetaMask wallet address, and we’ll send you a little bit to get started! It’s pretty easy and a lot of fun to use, Yay.

If you’d like to learn more about cryptocurrency, Ethereum, and how Popula is using these new technologies to help protect speech rights and the free press, please visit our FAQ page.

I’m ready to subscribe to Popula! or Log In

I’m already a subscriber and logged in! OMG, try again please.

Hmm, you don’t seem to be subscribed or logged in. Click the ‘Subscribe Now or Log In’ button.

Hmmm, something’s up.

We’re having trouble checking your subscriber status. Try refreshing the page.

Click here to refresh the page!

Want to leave a comment?

Welcome! To leave a comment, you’ll need to log in, and also have your MetaMask wallet ready with some ETH cryptocurrency available.

It’s easy! Just visit metamask.io to install an in-browser MetaMask wallet. If you’re a new subscriber, write to hey@popula.com for $2 in free ETH crypto!

Click to continue to login

I’m already logged in. Check again!

Hmm, you’re still not logged in. Click the ‘Log In’ button.

Want to leave a comment?

Thank you for being a Popula subscriber! As a subscriber, you may leave comments, but you have to be logged in as commenter here first. This is an additional login—the login for your commenting privileges—and you’ll stay logged in after you log in the first time.

I’m already registered and logged in. Check again!

Hmm, you’re still not registered here. Click the ‘Register Me’ button.

Yay, you’ve been registered!

We’ve sent an email to your registered address at … with your commenting details. Please follow the directions in the email to open your commenting privileges and then come back here to leave your first comment!

OK, I logged in. Load the comments!

Hmm, you’re still not logged in. Click the ‘Log In’ button.

You’re already registered.

Thanks for registering! Please log in and you can get started commenting.

I’m already logged in. Check again!

Hmm, you’re still not logged in. Click the ‘Log In’ button.

Looks like you’re on the test network!

You need to connect to the Main Ethereum Network before you can leave a comment. Click on your MetaMask icon so the window pops up, then select ‘Main Ethereum Network’ from the network-chooser dropdown at the top.

Waiting for connection to main network…

You need to activate MetaMask to leave a comment!

You’re logged in and ready to leave comments! All you need is a MetaMask wallet and a little ETH cryptocurrency, just like with our microtipping system.

If you know what MetaMask is and have it installed, activate MetaMask and refresh:

Checking your commenting status…

Registering your account…

Between Infodemic and Pandemic: The Paranoid Style in Taiwanese Politics

Brian Hioe

Conspiracy theories are apparently a side effect of the Delta variant in Taiwan

Jul 22, 2021 7:00AM EDT

Loss For Words: A Meditation on the Ubiquity of Bizarre Corporate Language

Lucy Schiller

"Sometimes a CEO would come in and pace. He needed to “think out loud.” We’d have pastries, coffee; I remember feeling at a loss: how do I behave in front of this client when I have truly no idea what I’m supposed to do or be?"

Jul 20, 2021 1:17PM EDT

Crimes Against Nature

Simone Haysom

Policing and punishment in the illegal wildlife trades

Jul 12, 2021 1:00PM EDT

OK, let’s activate MetaMask!

Hmm, looks like you don’t have MetaMask activated!

If that doesn’t make sense to you, click here:

Please connect your MetaMask!

The MetaMask window will pop up and ask if you want Popula to connect to your MetaMask. Check the account you want to connect and click the ‘Next’ button.

Don’t see the MetaMask window? It might have popped up behind this window… Take a look and see if it’s hiding somewhere!

If you don’t see the MetaMask plugin popup, you may need to click the MetaMask icon in your browser toolbar (looks like this: ) and enter your password to unlock MetaMask.

Waiting to connect…

Your MetaMask may be out of date

You have an old version of the MetaMask extension installed. Before we can continue, you must install the latest version.

Here’s how:

Uninstall (don’t just disable) the existing extension from your browser.
Restart your browser.
Go to metamask.io and re-install the extension.
Come back here and try again!

We know this step is inconvenient, but it’s necessary to make sure this all goes smoothly!

Oops, we need to connect!

Your MetaMask extension is running, but for privacy purposes you have to allow us to connect to your MetaMask wallet.

You can’t tip yourself…

You can’t conduct a transaction where the source and destination wallet are the same. Sorry! Maybe you need to switch wallets in MetaMask first?

You need to connect to the Main Net before you can continue. Click on your MetaMask icon so the window pops up, then select ‘Main Ethereum Network’ from the dropdown.

Confirm your transaction!

Your MetaMask window will pop up in a few seconds, and you need to confirm the transaction in order for your payment to go through.

Hit that ‘CONFIRM’ button to make it happen!

Hmm, that comment couldn’t be posted.

Your comment was rejected! Here’s what the computer had to say:

You can try again if you want:

Want to fix that comment?

Maybe you’re not quite comfortable with this yet?

Decided not to comment?

Did you reject the transaction by accident? Click here:

Want to edit your comment first?

Hmm, something went wrong.

That transaction didn’t go through for some reason.

Try clicking on the MetaMask button in your browser bar (looks like this: ) and see if you have any transactions listed at the bottom of the popup. If you don’t see one for the comment you just tried to post, then try again:

Or just want to ask us about it? We’ll look into it personally for you.

COMMENT POSTED!

Comment posted successfully! Refresh the page to see the comment you just made. You’ll also receive an email notification of your transaction.

To see your transaction logged in MetaMask, click the MetaMask button in your browser toolbar—this one: —and your transaction will be listed in the popup.

You can also track the transaction on the Etherscan website. It usually takes under a minute to process, and you’ll get a notification from MetaMask when it’s done.

Track on Etherscan

If you have any questions at all, please let us know!

Ready to Tip!

How much do you want to tip?

You can adjust either amount to see how much ETH or USD you’ll be sending.

You can adjust the tip amount in the MetaMask popup window before confirming the transaction.

Participation in the Popula comment tipping system is optional.

Decided not to tip?

Did you reject the transaction by accident? Want to adjust your tip amount? Click here:

Try clicking on the MetaMask button in your browser bar (looks like this: ) and see if you have any transactions listed at the bottom of the popup. If you don’t see the tip you just tried to leave, then try again:

TIP SENT!

Your comment tip has been processed! Thank you so much. The comment author will appreciate it a lot, and so do all of us at Popula.

Want a receipt? (We won’t store your email address.)

Set your wallet address for tips

In order to receive tips on your comments, you must have a wallet address saved. Enter your wallet address below and click ‘Save.’

Or, you can:

If don’t want to accept tips, clear the address and hit ‘Save.’

We’ve automatically filled in the wallet address that you’re currently using in MetaMask. If you just have that one wallet, leave it as is and click ‘Save.’

That wallet address is invalid. It should start with 0x and be 42 characters long.

Hmm, we couldn’t save your wallet address. Try pressing the ‘Save’ button again.

Yay, your wallet address has been saved! You can now accept tips. Close this popup to continue commenting.

You have entered no wallet address, so you cannot accept tips. Close this popup if you're OK with that. Enter a wallet address if you want to accept tips.

Questions? Problems?

We know this cryptocurrency stuff is new and weird. We’re here to help you understand. Ask us anything!

hey@popula.com

Help: What is ETH?

ETH is Ether, a popular cryptocurrency generated on the Ethereum blockchain.

You’ll need some Ethereum cryptocurrency (ETH) in a MetaMask wallet in order to continue. Currently it’s not possible to use other cryptocurrencies, or in dollars or other fiat currencies.

For a comprehensive FAQ to help get you started, please visit our FAQ page.