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As many of you may know, this past week Netflix took the extraordinary, unprecedented step of going full deleto mode on it’s mail-order DVD business. To the tasteless among you, this may have floated in one ear and then rattled around inside the empty space but goddamnit you must still relish in a good ol’ DVD??

Maybe sometimes I want to have a fight with the DVD player like a dysfunctional, old married couple. Why have Disney+ when you can really work for that Bambi II watch sesh. You know the drill: shine it with your shirt, blow into the DVD player, and softly speak it words of affirmation until that doesn’t work and you almost chuck it out the window. It’s about the journey really.

Or if it’s really over, please tell me how I will be able to continue expanding my archaic physical media collection by ripping Netflix DVDs. It’s just not the same trying to pirate films “over the web” and the site takes me straight to some random niche porn*… hmph.

In the end, bold move, Netflix. This shit built you. You may be high and mighty now, producing award-winning movies and raising your monthly subscription price but don’t forget, you came from the muck. From shlepping DVDs around via USPS in little red envelopes. And we loved it.

*no kink shaming

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No seriously, who are they? Cause they’re making some head-ass shit and I think I’m about it.

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For over a decade (or post 9/11 if you like) cars, particularly those with publicity, clout etc... i.e. the fancy ones, increasingly adopted what I would dub a “militarized” aesthetic. “Murdered out” in all black, the scintillating combination of luxury meets prepper meets Bond villain produced designs that looked hostile, oppressive and mean. You could almost say, for instance, that this sentiment was tied up in a nice little bow with Mr. Musk’s ill-fated Cyber Truck (may it go the way of the Dodo, and also Twitter? yikes).

So, surveying the landscape of the newest crop of EVs I am pleasantly surprised. I would almost call it democratic design, but that requires setting aside the lower-upper-class price tags that come with many of today’s EVs, emblematic of decidedly undemocratic economic undercurrents.

However, this does mean that these cars are luxury and I think wield outsized influence on the future of car aesthetics. And what aesthetics they are…

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Obviously, there are some misses like the Lexus LM (wtf is that grill tho?!?), but that said, the aesthetics of a Rivian are refreshingly gentle (and colors!). VW’s EVs are pretty futuristic, heck, the vibes were so good they brought the fackin vanagon back-ish as an EV but you'll never be able to buy one, sad. Hyundai's Ioniq 5 is practically 8-bit platformer themed with its pixelated headlights. When was the last time you saw a car with that kind of personality?!

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This is all to say that I like how the *dawn of the EV age* has given car designers license to shake things up a bit. Throw out the grill, toss the tailpipe and while you’re at it make the whole thing look like a 60’s concept sketch for flying cars. If it’s already completely different under the hood, why not make the hood different while you’re at it? Just don’t forget to leave your Soylent Green in the frunk or it’ll smell kinda… different?

The rumors are true. We’re really internet and we’re here to stay. Welcome to The Internet Times, a weblog as unnecessary as it is unoriginal. Who we are doesn’t matter; whether what we say does is up to you. As citizens of the internet, we’re fed up with the polish of social media. It’s counterproductive — while a digital ecosystem of one-upmanship and posts meant to impress may be for some, it’s not for us.

There was a naïve beauty to the early internet. The one that existed before it was a manipulation machine built to turn free labor into digital dollars. We’re carving out a space to keep that same energy amidst the noise. Let us know what you think… “two heads are better than one.”