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No time for intros! Welcome! Usual drill except with no art or theatre sections because I've been to neither since I moved back to Glasgow. Books I read Giovanni's Room at the beginning of February and — to be honest — it feels like that was five years ago. I do remember telling a guy at the end of a (good) date that I was excited to get the bus home because it would give me more time to read…
An innie is born fully clothed, lying on a conference room table, the voice of God (their manager) coming to them from a speaker. The table is pleasantly ovular, the walls padded — perhaps sound-proof, in case they scream and disturb their fellow employees. They wake up with knowledge and without memories, able to name a state but not the colour of their mother's eyes. The world they are born into…
In 1988, George Lucas went with Steven Spielberg to the US Senate and delivered a speech in favour of the rights of artists to protect their work from alteration. Railing against the trend at the time for colourisation of black and white films, he said: Today, engineers with their computers can add colour to black-and-white movies, change the sound track, speed up the pace and add or subtract…
It's less than a week until the 97th Academy Awards, but the race for Best Picture is still wide open. As of 23rd February, The Brutalist tops the list on GoldDerby at 6/1, while Anora sits just behind on 13/2, followed by Conclave and Emilia Pérez on 7/1 each. Pole position was previously held by Emilia Pérez — it received the most nominations, with 13 — but scandals surrounding bigoted Tweets by…
It's generally not a good idea to complain about making the sausage while you're serving it, but I think you can see the strain in this thing — for some reason writing this was like pulling teeth. I should save this for a separate post sometime but I've spent a lot of this past year thinking about work and process and wondering why I love starting projects and loathe finishing them — maybe it's…
Music Almost zero new releases for me this year, so instead here’s a top 10 of albums I listened to for the first time (or the first time in many years) and then over and over: Automatic for the People , R.E.M. Townes Van Zandt , Townes Van Zandt Cymande , Cymande Dummy , Portishead Midnight Marauders , A Tribe Called Quest Violator , Depeche Mode Halfaxa , Grimes [1] John Prine , John Prine…
This is the hefty one of the three, of course! My only real movie plan for this year is to make a concerted effort to get myself out of the house for exciting rep screenings and to see far fewer new releases — certainly as a percentage, but preferably numerically too. (I will practice saying no to press screenings for movies that look bad, even if there might be celebrities there.) I'm also…
Presented with apologies to my legions of fans who have been eagerly awaiting the return of those monthly posts I did four of. Usually when I make these annual round-ups I try to be comprehensive, which I think is a mistake — no one wants to read a 200-strong list of everything I watched/read/etc this year [1] with a pithy comment attached and frankly I don't really want to write that either. So,…
Firstly, a disclaimer: this is not an instruction manual. This is the first device I've modded (other than a couple of self-built PCs, which doesn't really count), and it wouldn't have even crossed my mind to attempt it without a multitude of blog posts and YouTube videos by people much smarter than me. All the resources I drew on are linked below: Building an iPod for 2022 Upgrading a 2006 iPod…
Happy belated May! I hope you're as excited as I am about the WGA strike. I've been thinking a lot about this comic (?) by avocado_ibroprufen — mostly because I find the final panel so calming, but also because it illustrates perfectly that the only logical end point to the current wave of tech and content acceleration is absolute consumer apathy. I've also been reading about the winding down of…
Everything I've read & watched this month. Highlights mark the really good stuff. Now with commentary! Film C = cinema, W = watched for work, R = rewatch. More here . Y Tu Mamá También (2001, dir Alfonso Cuarón) (R) I always underrate this until I’m actually watching it and then I immediately remember that it’s a near-perfect object. A couple of tossed-off character beats here that are expanded in…
Everything I've read & watched this month. Highlights mark the really good stuff. Enjoy! Film C = cinema, W = watched for work, R = rewatch. More here . The Game (1997, dir David Fincher) (R) EO (2022, dir Jerzy Skolimowski) (C) L'Atalante (1934, dir Jean Vigo) (C) The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920, dir Robert Wiene) (C) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019, dir J. J. Abrams) (R) Dick Tracy…
Everything I've read & watched this month. Highlights mark the really good stuff. Enjoy! Film C = cinema, W = watched for work, R = rewatch. More here . Shadows in Paradise (1986, dir Aki Kaurismaki) Bell, Book and Candle (1958, dir Richard Quine) Rocky (1976, dir John G. Avildsen) Slap Shot (1977, dir George Roy Hill) Corsage (2022, dir Marie Kreutzer) (C) Babylon (2022, dir Damien Chazelle) (C,…
new releases nomadland first cow martin eden american utopia the august virgin da 5 bloods full list old releases akira, alice doesn’t live here anymore, all that jazz, the ascent, the aviator, barton fink, blue collar, butch cassidy and the sundance kid, cabaret, casino, citizen kane, the conversation, dead ringers, deep cover, the deer hunter, dick tracy, easy rider, the exorcist, the french…
