Weird Coincidence: “The First” and Yusaku Maezawa
September 18th, 2018A few days ago, I was trying to get through a new and excruciatingly boring TV show called, The First:
The First is an American-British drama web television series created by Beau Willimon and starring Sean Penn and Natascha McElhone. The show portrays members of a team of astronauts as they become the first humans to visit Mars. The series, a co-production between American streaming service Hulu and British television network Channel 4, debuted on September 14, 2018 in the United States.
In episode one, the CEO of a fictional private space exploration company walks into her living room. A picture of what looks like a skull painted by a graffiti artist is prominently displayed above the fireplace.
Here’s a partial screenshot:
I thought, “WTF is that grotesque thing? The set designer had a bit of fun there!”
Flash forward to yesterday and SpaceX announcing that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will travel around the moon in the company’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR).
I had never heard of Yusaku Maezawa, so I did a few searches. Within a few seconds, I saw this:
[???]
And if he pays for the trip with the painting…
Capital A, lowercase a, no, cross that out. Some Xs over Skyhead… there, done.
This is bad work. I’ve seen better art on railroad cars. And a cool hundred million. Where the fuck are my acrylics?
In a world saturated by advertising, propaganda, and lies the social construction of reality increasing feels like continuos programming or some veiled Hegelian set up.