Midrange Weekly Jan 18
Your Round Up On What’s Got The Midrange Staff’s Attention This Week
Midrange Staff @midrangeyvr
Welcome back to Midrange and congratulations to our American neighbours for making it 12 days without a violent insurrection. If that seems like a needlessly petty and insolent statement to make in such trying times, yes that’s true. For our parts, in an act of contrition and merciful empathy, we are going to take a break from our obsessive gaze over Trump World ( soon to be Biden World? Doesn't have the same ring ) and focus on other things. Luckily, even beyond the big sad chetto, the world is adrift in grave injustices, disingenuous participants, and vile opportunists for which we can direct our opprobrium. Failing that we can try talking about things that are fun. Let’s try a little but of both.
WandaVision Nails Its Intro Far Better Than Expected
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST TWO EPISODES OF WANDAVISION AHEAD
Putting aside the fact that we absolutely don’t need our divisionary media to depict life as any more bizarre than it already is, WandaVision is explicitly weird. After the hype machine lead up the show inspired little more than ambivalence bordering on outright dismissal on my part, it’s surprising how much the show is exactly what I’m looking for. It’s really great. For what seems like the first time across the mainline MCU spectrum we are witnessing characters, walking weapons of mass destruction in their own right, interact with and engaging the world on terms that aren’t punching things, blowing up other things, or saving the world (universe?) from people like them who are just a bit more pernicious. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy the punching and the explosions quite a bit. But what’s being attempted in WandaVision, even if the big picture is intentionally and gratuitously obscured thus far, is incredibly refreshing.
WandaVision casts two MCU heavy hitters, Wanda Maximoff- AKA the Scarlet Witch, who exists somewhere between a demi god and mutant of mollifying power- and The Vision- a sentient android of cosmic intellect and capabilities, who is also currently dead- in the domestic and pastoral bliss of married life in an amalgam of a 1950s sitcom idea of an American suburb. Genocidal and heretical threats, be them in the form of killer androids of interstellar warlords, are supplanted by cooking dinner for the boss and making sure the passive aggressive cadre of suburban housewives like them. Why is this happening? How is this happening? Where does this fit in within the MCU or even our basic understandings of reality?
Make no mistake, that sense of reality quickly becomes far more tenuous than implied by merely transplanting postmodern characters into an anachronistic setting. They aren’t living in 1950s America; they are living in a 1950s American TV show. It’s a show that doesn’t star Elizabeth Olsen or Paul Bettany, the actors who play Wanda and The Vision; it stars Wanda and The Vision. Like an unsettling intersection between the Matrix and Pleasantville, the show intimates the fallacy and malevolence of this supposedly benign environment throughout the two episodes that have aired so far in fascinating ways. An errant toy helicopter, draped in crimson red among the black and white reality of the setting, serves not only as an acute warning of it’s own existential animosity, but that of everything else. When one of the prototype desperate housewives of the neighbourhood cuts her hand, it too bleeds red amidst the monochrome wash of everything else. Is this mildly antagonistic individual revealing herself as interloper within the artifice of everything, an embedded agent of obfuscation glitching out, or something more anomalous? At the end of its second episode WandaVision finds a brilliant symbiosis of thematic intrigue and the supernatural enormity of Wanda’s powers when she, upon encountering the distressing visage of what looks like a bee keeper emerging from the sewer (like I said it’s weird), she rewinds time. She doesn’t reverse it, she doesn’t travel back in time- she rewinds it, just like one would do with an antique VHS tape.
That incident paired with the previous episode in which the Vision’s boss chokes at dinner as his wife responds by being seemingly locked into an algorithmic response loop only deepens the Lynchian unorthodoxy of it’s narrative, leading to a preponderance of questions and theories. Namely, where/when/how/what are they? A key factor in hoping to theorize a possible answer must involve the Marvel Multiverse, which will be the next big focus of phase 4 of the films now that the Infinity Saga is wrapped up. A potential major introduction to the multiverse at large will be in the forthcoming Dr Strange sequel to which Wanda herself is rumoured to be a key player. Integrating these elements into WandaVision makes sense. Perhaps an as of yet unknown antagonist, well aware of Wanda’s deleterious powers and penchant for disruption, moves to pre-emptively neutralize her by trapping her in an alternate reality- one where not only is her true love The Vision still alive, but also designed to lull her into a tranquil and less volatile state. The idea of Wanda being trapped or receding into a different dimension to be with The Vision is a fascinating one, bolstered by the congruous mystery of someone, somehow, reaching out to her trying to ascertain who as done this to her. Did she do it to herself?
Whatever the nature of her exile to the negligent bliss of this suburban construct, malignant or otherwise, it’s a pleasure to watch Wanda and The Vision occupy it. Far removed from their respective roles of traumatized wild card and obnoxiously stoic voice of reason, these two are really funny! Their chemistry together, comprised of reciprocal adoration for each other, fumbling ungracefully through their trials and tribulations, and just delightfully hoaky sentimentalism is wonderful. These two were never afforded much growth in their previous MCU appearances, let alone a genuine shot at humour. Wanda was a suspicious and temperamental person burdened with powers and responsibility she couldn’t handle, but those dynamics have been continuously sanded down and sanitized to the point where even her eastern European accent had been erased. The Vision, illuminating in his origin scene and overall potential has been nerfed repeatedly to the point where he got his ass smoked twice by a large gremlin with a sharp stick. Yet here in WandaVision, their slightly out of touch in a classist sense style of humour and befuddling clumsiness is far more endearing then I would have expected. If they are setting up an untenable sham universe that Wanda will nevertheless loath to be exorcised from and respond violently at the incitement of, I totally get it.
On a quick final note, the MCU is no stranger to visually inventive end credit rolls, and WandaVision is among the best. A manic fluttering of countless red, green, and blue nodes dance around the screen forming symbolic shapes and dizzying arrays. The metaphor of bursting forth from the monotony of black and white into vivid Technicolor expands even further into the idea of world full of endlessly chaotic dynamics. More of this please. -Tristan
People Are Arguing About Minimum Wage Again
I’m not sure why so much of twitter discourse in the past several days has erupted into a debate around raising the minimum wage in America. This is not to say this isn’t a very worth while debate to have or that this isn’t actually a pretty good use of Twitter’s time, I’m just not sure what triggered this round of litigation and why it is so wide spread. My best guess is this is in correlation to Biden’s recently revealed economic/covid stimulus plan to which this could be tangentially associated. We’ve had this debate before, all of us in one form or another.
Like so many topics, regardless of their origin in economics, foreign affairs, etc. that get swallowed by the reductive optics of culture wars, most of our opinions are stubbornly entrenched and partisan. With that in mind, I certainly don’t expect to be able to change any minds, nor would I attempt a holistic survey that intertwines all of the attendant but discreet arguments into a single cohesive thesis. It is after all, quite late as I write this. However it seems instructive to bring attention to a few quick points that I would challenge any dissenter to raising the minimum wage to incorporate into their logic. I would bet they couldn’t.
Proponents against raising minimum wage argue that increased wages will lead to increased prices. Get ready for a $20 burrito at Taco Bell! But that ignores the fact that prices have steadily gone up everywhere over the decades anyway, without the national minimum wage changing. The idea that these two factors are intrinsically linked just doesn’t hold any currency in reality.
Lot’s of pictures going around of places like McDonalds or London Drugs with automatic checkout machines, emblematic of reduced workforces no doubt, are captioned with self righteous lines like “This is what $15 minimum wage looks like”. But the problem is this is literally what $7.25 min wage looks like. These are literally pictures from modern day real life where the min wage is nothing close to $15 in America. This is reminiscent of conservative’s hysterically stupid visual arguments of the past summer showing a burning building and claiming it to be a precipitous symbol of Biden’s America, even though it happened under Trump’s watch. Another classic is the ominous visage of a stripped clean grocery store shelf, labelled as clear warning of a dystopian America to be should socialism be allowed to run rampant, even though again this is literally America operating under a masochistically capitalist system. The fact is, if the technology presents itself as economically viable and scalable, automation will always happen, regardless of the wage. These two factors are simply not linked. If corporations are going to give your jobs to a robot at $7.25 then yes of course they will also do it at $15. How about we go with the later until then anyways. If they can do it any quicker, they will. A wage increase will not result in a more precipitous decline in workforce than would have happened anyways.
It’s interesting how much people suddenly care about the profit margins of companies like McDonalds or Amazon whenever the minimum wage discussion is brought up. These are billion dollar tyrannical companies run by billionaire tyrants. Why do you care about their bottom line this much? It’s also interesting (read: absolutely maddening) the extent to which we all turn on each other during these arguments. We are angrier with some kid working at Burger King making a living wage potentially than Elon Musk being actually richer than god and he probably spends more of his time stoned at work. One of the biggest scams in all of capitalism is how the billionaires made us hate each other more than them.
We are told that if we can’t afford to go to college or handle the debilitating levels of debt associated with the pursuit, then we have no business seeking post secondary education to get any kind of degree. Furthermore without any kind of higher education we are told we are not deserving of any kind of wage that would be considered sustainable as far as, you know, living goes. It’s almost as if they want us kept in a perpetual cycle of poverty from which escape is unlikely at best. Maybe capitalism requires vast amounts of human capital to be exploited. Maybe.
Remember how we discussed all of those workers with low paying jobs back when we had a global pandemic that is still very much happening? I’ll leave this here for now. -Tristan
Everyone went from “essential workers are heroes” to “$15? Fuck that” real quick.
— Dary🐶 (@DaryRezvani) January 16, 2021
Flux Five
This Week:
Lomelda “Thx” 2017 Thnx
Oscar Peterson “ill Wind” 1959 Oscar Peterson Plays the Harold Arlen Song Book
Collapser Feat. Emiliana Torini “Kid Koala” 2017 Music to Draw To: Satellite (feat. Emilíana Torrini)
Cero “Daiteiden No Yoruni” 2011 WORLD RECORD
Plenty Action“Soft Touch” 2006 Bay Area Funk 2: Funk & Soul from San Francisco
Enjoy! - Mick
Things From The Internet We liked
Buck Meek Keeps Big Thief’s Gold Standard Going
Buck Meek, one of the members of folk rock heroes Big Thief is back with his second solo album Two Saviors. The track Cannonball! Pt2 is a twangy and folksy bout of jovial euphoria.
“It’s Cold Out Here And The Oxen Are Getting Tired”
Twitter comedian Vinny Thomas casts himself as one of the delusional insurrections stranded in Washington DC after taking part in the coup and being put on the no fly list. It’s just a fun joke!
On my way back home after being added to the no-fly list! Just checking in! pic.twitter.com/gmD5EeyARX
— Vinny Thomas ! (@vinn_ayy) January 11, 2021
Why Are Sea Shanties Trending?
Who knows! Not us! But we love it.
2021 is the year of the sea shanty pic.twitter.com/ohOAGvkbtC
— Tim - Poster of Hugo Pics (@Beertheist) January 11, 2021