Opinions within the gamer community differ widely regarding the ethics of emulation — copying old games onto modern computers where they can be played by using software tools to mimic the behavior of older console hardware. Most video game publishers are strongly opposed of course, and fans agree that the people who make our games should be able to profit from them. But, because of their dependence on aging hardware, games are one of the least-well-preserved of all media types. Allowing pieces of our culture to vanish forever because their "owners" didn't find it profitable to preserve them, for generation after generation, doesn't "promote the progress of science and the useful arts".

And then of course there's this terrible pun.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Message in a Bottle" by The Police

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This one began with just the pun(ch) line, but when I realized what piece of media it could be about, it grew (ahem) into something deeper. Miyazaki's Nausicaa, like Frozen's Elsa, is a bold heroine who discovers a dangerous secret, an inner connection to an unstoppable natural force, and her own sense of purpose on the edge of the wilderness.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez

 

 

Hekate is a mysterious and complex goddess, associated with magic and witchcraft, liminal spaces, and threes — such as places where three roads meet; or the upper, middle, and lower worlds. I know Her primarily through Her supporting role in the story of Persephone, about Whom more is written elsewhere. Speaking with Hekate around the time of Sukkot, a Jewish (not Hellenic!) holiday which involves the gathering and waving of a bundle of symbolic plants, She suggested to me this trio of weeds, all of which grow wild in my neighborhood. Poisonous nightshades have long been Hers (and bittersweet nightshade is poisonous), and mugwort and goldenrod are associated with the dream realm and abundance respectively.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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According to a meme that has been going around, the name of OpenAI's flagship product sounds especially funny if you know French.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

 

 

Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King) is a solemn hymn chanted on the holiest days of the Jewish year, reminding us of the G-d before whom we stand. Modern progressive Jews vary in their relationship to those particular metaphors. This new, um, translation, reveals a surprisingly modern and scientific view of the Source of Life in the coming together of simple organic molecules under geothermal heat.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Avinu Malkeinu", trad. Hebrew

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Amino volcano

Molecular tango

Amino volcano, molecular tango

That gave rise to all living beings

 

They say the dawn-soup

Thickened when heated

They say the dawn-soup thickened when heated

And out of that soup we all grew