Letters From Nowhere 04/12/26
Together, we can turn this fucking newsletter to rust!
Welcome to Letters From Nowhere! My name is Laszlo Tamasfi, I’m a horror writer, translator, game designer, and I run the small press Strangers From Nowhere. Thank you for reading!
TODAY’S MOOD:
When you thought you were about finished with a project, but then a new idea pops into your head that will mean a whole lot more work…
…but also, it would be really freakin’ cool to do.
Yes, sometimes I hate myself.
CREATIVE WORK
I had a really productive two weeks, so I’m happy to report that I managed to dig myself out of the creative swamp I mentioned in the last newsletter. Yay!
I finished gathering material for a chapbook I’ve been working on for over a year now. This might not seem like a huge deal, but it involves looking through hundreds and hundreds of pages of newspapers on a digital archive, and it was really time-consuming. I do like this kind of work but I would lie if I said that it can’t feel mind-numbingly boring at times.
I also started work in earnest on the Downloaders TTRPG zine, and I started testing some of the more fundamental rules.
Oh, and I’m still chipping away at the Downloaders short film (which will most likely double as a Kickstarter campaign video for the TTRPG zine sometime in the second half of the summer). I’m doing final touches on a prop that involves a hologram, and I have to say, it’s going to look really, really cool! I’m capturing everything in camera (and I’m not doing any compositing in post-production), so the hologram will be projected in real time when we shoot the scene that goes with it.
LIFE
Today is election day in Hungary, and I’m in a weird “cautiously optimistic but also anxious AF” state. I cast my vote (by mail, of course) about two weeks ago, so I’m glad that I got to at least participate, whatever the outcome will be. ***insert “can we have at least one thing go right for a change?!?” emoji***
COLLECTING
Hot Topic had some pretty good discounts on their Nine Inch Nails merch, so I grabbed their Tron: Ares hoodie. I really like this Tronified NIN logo!
While I was there I also ordered one of these The Fragile shorts. I try not to get too deep into collecting clothing, but I love oddball merchandise, and having the Fragile flower placed on the back pocket/bootie just cracks me up! It’s adorable!
I will absolutely be wearing these.
OTHER
LISTENING TO
A few weeks ago Rammstein’s catalog of singles made their way onto Spotify, so I’ve been listening to a lot of old remixes, especially from the Herzeleid - Sehnsucht - Mutter era… one of the best three album runs from any band.
Last night was the live debut of Nine Inch Noize, the mysterious project that grew out of the collaboration between Nine Inch Nails and Boys Noize on the Peel It Back tour. And let me just say, HOLYFUCKINSHIT, it was incredible! As of this email going out you can still watch it on the festival’s livestream, you just have to scroll back on the timeline:
Quick highlights: Mariqueen on backing vocals (especially on Heresy) and the first ever live performance of Memorabilia!!!
On a sidenote, what an absolute fluke that 14-year-old me got obsessed with a band that is still exciting to follow 30 years later! ***insert “it was supposed to be an exaggeration but I did the math and it’s literally been 30 years, so excuse me while I go lay down and turn into dust” emoji***
INTERESTING THINGS I RAN ACROSS
Here’s a really neat video about archeologists using AI to solve an ancient Roman mystery - well, “solve” might be a stretch, but at least they got some interesting possible answers…
Lines incised on a piece of limestone recovered in the Netherlands suggest that it might have been the base of a yet unknown ancient board game, so a group of scientists used an AI-driven software to test out over a hundred possible game figurations in thousands of simulated game plays (of course a lot more went into it, from studying use-wear on the stone, considering known game rules from the era, etcetera, so the video is really worth watching. Oh, and here’s the actual research paper it’s based on in case you want to check it out).
This is not the kind of thing you can prove without finding more archeological evidence, but I think it’s super cool that this research produced a two-player blocking game that actually works!
Safety pin sunglasses, designed by H. R. Giger:
No further comment needed, the off-the-charts coolness speaks for itself.
While I don’t think Billy Corgan is necessarily a great interviewer, I genuinely loved his conversation with Melissa Auf der Maur (former bassist of Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins) on his podcast, The Magnificent Others. And speaking of Hole: Courtney Love also sat down with Corgan for his show, and the two episodes make for a great (but long) back-to-back listen. Longtime readers know that I adore Courtney Love, I resent the casual sexism in the way people talk about her*, and my ultimate controversial music opinion/a hill I’m happy to die on is that America’s Sweetheart, her 2004 solo album, is really fantastic!
*If you don’t believe me, just look at the way her history with drugs/addiction is discussed versus the way people talk about Layne Staley or Scott Weiland… and don’t get me started on the conspiracy theories about her killing her husband! What the actual fuck?!?
If you want to avoid the flood of fake AI moon photos, you can check out the official Artemis II gallery on the NASA website for some real ones. This whole mission warmed my heart!
In case you’re the type of person who randomly remembers an embarrassing moment from seventh grade as you’re trying to fall asleep, good news, it’s evolution’s fault! The Neuroscience of Cringe: Why the Past Still Burns is an interesting article about the science of why some memories are disproportionately loaded with emotions, and how it ties back to the importance of recognizing social cues and fitting in to a group in order to survive.
Sidenote: I love learning new terminology, so I was delighted to find that the scientific term for a cringe-inducing memory that unexpectedly pops into your head is “involuntary memory”, and also the concept of “overactive self-reflection” sounds like something I should unpack later…
Oh, wait. Maybe I shouldn’t, because that would be even more self-reflecting, leading to a closed loop that I couldn’t possibly escape…
Oh god, what have I done?!
Thanks for reading Letters From Nowhere. You can find me here, feel free to follow me on social media and I’m always happy to hear feedback!
I was very nervous about the election too but luckily it exceeded my wildest dreams :)
Just saw a few clips from NIN's Coachella performance yesterday. They were great, but I liked them more when they used guitars and live drums besides the synths. For me they were peak some time around the Fragility v2.0 tour. But I'm a metal head :) Anyway, kudos to Reznor for constantly changing and progressing, reinventing the band every time.