Culture Bites 001: Finding the Weird, Wild, and Wonderful
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Welcome to Culture Bites—-bite size updates of the latest trends, useful insights, and occasional deep dives into topics that matter to me.
Here's the latest updates:
DESTINO: A Dead Set Production
Last year I went to Colombia in an effort to re-connect with my culture and explore what it means to be a "culture mutt". I teamed up with one of my closest friends, Kevin Carrol, and used Dead Set FC as our story telling vehicle; a brand focused on capturing the soul of football culture. The deeper I went, the clearer it became. Football had shaped so much of my story without me even realizing it. Destino is my way of piecing the threads of my story together. Football. Music. Identity. Watch the trailer here.
A Day at DOPS
Nov. 1979 – The Dalai Lama toured UVA Grounds with Dr. Ian Stevenson
I recently had the chance to visit the UVA Department of Perceptual Studies, diving deeper into their reincarnation and consciousness research. The team is still unraveling kids’ past-life memories and their eerie physical markers. Check out the full recap of my visit here.
Edgar Cayce's Many Mansions
I picked up Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation by Gina Cerminara. The book explores the life and readings of psychic Edgar Cayce, focusing on his claims about reincarnation. The book examines how Cayce’s trance-induced insights revealed past lives for individuals, offering explanations for their current life challenges, talents, and relationships. Cerminara analyzes these readings to argue for the existence of reincarnation and karmic justice, drawing on Cayce’s extensive case studies to illustrate how past-life experiences shape present realities. It’s a blend of spiritual philosophy and psychic investigation, appealing to those curious about reincarnation and Cayce’s legacy.
Brains on Chips: The Living Computer
Cortical Labs just launched the world’s first commercial biological computer, fusing human brain cells with silicon chips. It’s programmable, adaptive, and outperforming traditional AI, as shared in this mind-blowing X thread by vittorio. Are we stepping into a sci-fi future or just reinventing how we think? I’m equal parts amazed and a little freaked out as per usual with AI developments.
Silent Protest, Loud Statement
image from Getty Images | Shutterstock
Over 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush and Cat Stevens, released a silent album to protest UK AI copyright changes. Titled "Is This What We Want?", it’s empty tracks screaming about tech encroaching on art. It’s a bold, silent shout in our noisy digital age—genius or a mute statement? You decide. Check out the full article here and listen here.
Stable Audio
Stability AI dropped Stable Audio Open, a tool for generating music and sound effects with AI. It’s like a creative playground for sound, blending tech and art in ways that feel both futuristic and familiar.
A Song to Remember
I spotted this X post about a song tool that’s got people humming. SONGS is the Open Distribution Protocol. This protocol allows artists to upload their songs to streaming services without intermediaries, making them sovereign and automating payments.
Central to the Open Distribution Protocol is the Wrapped Song: A new format that encapsulates all metadata, automates beneficiary payments, and contains the final master. This digital entity lives perpetually in the cloud, ensuring optimal revenue collection and distributionWhen an artist or group of artists wraps a song, 10,000 songshares are created. Each songshare represents 0.01% of the royalties, giving artists control over their music’s value. I asked, "How long does it take for the track to show up on DSPs? How fast are payments ? What chain are assets being tokenized on? Uploading and distributing is free forever?"
I'm looking to experiment with a few releases this next year with Songs. I might as well it try out while it's free!
That’s it for Culture Bites--bite size updates of the latest trends, useful insights, and occasional deep dives into topics that matter to me. Catch you next time
With love,
Pete Rango
P.S. If you'd like to reflect on anything discussed in this post please reach out! pete@peterango.com
