A few days ago, Nikolai N. (a.k.a. nnikif) of Videodreams surprised1 me with this video of my poem A Streak of Mean, and it was hauntingly perfect (perfectly haunting?) for publishing on Halloween.
I say it was a surprise, but he had actually proposed the idea of a collaboration on October 9—I just didn’t expect him to come up with something so fast. As he later joked to me, “Being fast is my curse, I imagine everything very fast and lose interest faster.”
I had selected A Streak of Mean because it seemed like a good fit for his artistic aesthetic, which is postmodern in the best sense of the word as it feels like a mashup of antiquarian books, silent films, vintage home movies, film noir, New Wave, circus posters, Buñuel, Eisenstein, and the Quay Brothers.
A Renaissance Russian from Saint Petersburg serving a performative exile in Kazakhstan, Nikolai is a cultural journalist who is well-versed2 in film, art, literature, music, computer science, fractals, and whatever other subjects catch his fancy. He is a graduate of Bard College, Physical-Technical School SPb, Smolny College, and ITMO SPb. He’s even written an app that turns a Kindle into a typewriter.
While contemplating a style for A Streak of Mean, Nikolai shared his initial inspiration:
“The ‘vibes’ I get from this poem are similar to The Scarlet Street by Fritz Lang, a vicious expressionist WW2-times film.”
That was about the extent of our exchange, and he took it from there. Upon completing the video, he wrote:
“I had a few images based directly upon Lang, but then I understood they don’t work, so eventually I made the actual visualisation of the poem, it’s deliberately ‘mechanical’, a la Scott Walker.”
After I requested one edit for timing, he noted:
“I was aiming for some level of cognitive dissonance, but maybe it’s too dissonant.”
I’m persnickety about typography, so he sent me the file, and I added the credits along with a few sound effects to the soundtrack he’d used Grok to craft.
If you appreciate Nikolai’s work, you can also find him on YouTube, Behance, and GoodReads. He welcomes contributions via Ko-fi as he is currently unable to monetize Substack in Kazakhstan. He is available for client projects and collaborations, writing:
“If you’re interested in a collab or a podcast, let’s get in touch, I am a workaholic, and the only things that interests me more than things I know how to do is things I don’t.”
Meanwhile, I hope you will enjoy his electrifying video of my poem3, which you can read in full below.
A Streak of Mean
by Margaret Anna Alice
Some people have a streak of mean
running through them.
A lightning bolt of vicious.
A circuitry of bile.
You feel the hum
of their electric fence
like a rattle on a snake.
You smell the stench
of their singed sacrifices
like a goat on a pyre.
You hear the crackling
of their voltage
like a fireworks finale.
You taste the metal
of their current
like a gadolinium dye.
You see the sparks
of their explosion
like a Peléan eruption.
All you can do is
fly
All you can do is
float
All you can do is
free yourself
Of the ground
before it’s ash.
Video Platforms & Social Media
You will find this video on the following platforms for easy sharing.
YouTube • Rumble • Odysee • Bitchute • X
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I received another Halloween surprise from my beloved and most frequent collaborator, Tonika Todorova of Visceral Adventure two years ago if you missed it:
Nikolai’s references range from Austen to Led Zeppelin, Yeats to David Bowie, Dickens to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Dostoyevsky to Ed Wood. His creations (sometimes AI-assisted, like the video of my poem; other times, music videos featuring collages of found footage or films) are just as at home set to Mozart as to Portishead or The Irrepressibles.
The Irrepressibles video uses footage from Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life, a film directed by the Brothers Quay. Nikolai shared his video after I’d mentioned the animation for “A Streak of Mean” reminded me of the Quay Brothers. He said he loved their video for Black Soul Choir, which was another new discovery to me.
Even if you don’t recognize their name, you likely know the Quay Brothers’ famous music video for Tool’s “Sober”:
Their video for His Name Is Alive holds a special place in my heart as both the obscure independent band and the moving-art video were favorites of Michael’s and mine early in our marriage:
Their aesthetic is also evocative of David Lynch’s Eraserhead:
If you have been targeted by people with a streak of mean in your life, you may appreciate my Favorite Books on Narcissism from my Favorite Reads Throughout My Life:
Favorite Books on Narcissism
George Simon’s In Sheep’s Clothing
Bill Eddy’s 5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life
Dana Morningstar’s The Narcissist’s Playbook
Debbie Mirza’s The Covert Passive-Aggressive Narcissist
Martha Stout’s The Sociopath Next Door
Jackson MacKenzie’s Psychopath Free
Ramani Durvasula’s Don’t You Know Who I Am?
I also enthusiastically recommend Meredith Miller’s, Nathalie Martinek’s, and Josh Slocum’s Substacks.
