In Other News: Gregg Araki, the History of the Vocoder and the “Last True Hermit”

There's a New Trailer For Gregg Araki's White Bird in a Blizzard

We were lucky enough to catch an early screening of White Bird in a Blizzard, the newest feature from cult director Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin, The Living End, Smiley Face). While the hot gossip is almost exclusively concerned with YA screen queen Shailene Woodley's "adult" performance, the most captivating parts of the film is how well she acts like a NON-grown up, expertly portraying the ecstatic, hormonal and emotionally-bleak moments that come with being 17. We actually got to speak with Araki about the film for the newest issue of The FADER; that interview hits newsstands next week and the web shortly after. 

The New Yorker Traces The History of the Vocoder

For their latest "Object of Interest" video, The New Yorker explores the vocoder. It's kind of surprising terrain for them, but we're very much into it. 

GQ Goes in on the "North Pond Hermit," a Real-Life Urban Legend

Though we haven't spent a lot of time in the densely-wooded areas of Central Maine, it's easy to imagine it as an incredibly eerie place. In a truly bizarre new feature, GQ tells the 100% real story of the "last true hermit," a 47-year-old man who had been haunting the area for nearly 30 years, avoiding other people and sometimes stealing from empty houses to survive. When the state trooper who discovered him asked when the last time time he had contact with another human was, he said: "Sometime in the 1990s."

Matt Schnipper Makes a "Top 10" with No Grateful Dead on It

To kick of something called "Hack Week," former FADER editor-in-chief Matthew Schnipper picks his favorite "not cool, whatever jams" over at his new URL stomping grounds, The Verge. He shockingly didn't include anything by the Dead, instead throwing together scuzzy punk, house, jazz, and a really really dope Whitney Houston remix by the late, great Frankie Knuckles. We're happy to see his taste is still weird and eclectic as hell.  

An Interview with Brooklyn Alt-Lit Mogul @NYTyrant 

As part of their summer-long "States of Independence," Dazed just published an unreal, scattershot Q+A with Tyrant Book's Giancarlo DiTrapano that touches on John Wayne Gacy, Oscar Wilde, the soundtrack to Grease, hiding out in his apartment, and Billy Idol's "Mony Mony." Here's an oddly moving excerpt:

What will America look like in 2050? Giancarlo DiTrapano: It's probably going to look like shit to me since I'll be 70 . Or dead. Hopefully dead.

Does the American Dream still exist? Yes, I had one yesterday and my dead uncle who I just loved to death was in it, alive, and he was like glowing and just looked great, like a big friendly bear, and I hugged him and I could feel his thick arms around my back and I could smell him so strongly (he always had a nice smell) and he was laughing and happy-crying while he hugged me and I could feel his chest bouncing up and down against my chest as he laughed. I woke up laughing too, but my face was wet. 

And, Finally...

apparently i have to do 'media training' today haha, so i can learn how to stop myself from saying inappropriate things in public

— goblin king (@Grimezsz) August 22, 2014