"On the Metal" podcast ft Jonathan Blow

Podcast about the gaming industry and hardware implementations regarding graphics and game engines in particular. Great podcast.

Sarah Maria Griffin - "Spare and Found Parts"

Enjoyable young adult novel about a post apocalyptic event ("The Turn"), supposedly caused by humans afraid of computers, that left a lot of people dead, a fear of code/computers, and people with mechanical limbs. Protagonist has a mechanic heart. It's very explain-y. I wonder if this is caused by its target audience. A post apocalyptic world should be explained through showing, not through telling. There is too much explicit explanation, even in dialogue; creating a stunted feel. Also, logic wise things jump. Suddenly Nell, the protagonist, wants a computer. Suddenly she takes people into confidence. It all happens haphazardly. It's an enjoyable read though if you want to forget about the world for a moment.

Michael Ondaatje - "Warlight"

Wonderful story of two children who, left by their parents, find their way through teenage and young adult life with various colourful characters such as the Moth and the Darter. There could have been a bit more about the father, his death was explained away in two sentences when not given any attention. Also, why the infatuation with the mother, and less so the father? Because the mother stayed behind a bit longer? We are foolish as teenagers. We say wrong things, do not know how to be modest, or less shy. We judge easily. But the only hope given us, although only in retrospect, is that we change. We learn, we evolve. What I am now was formed by whatever happened to me then, not by what I havw achieved, but by how I got there. But who did I hurt to get here? Who guided me to something better? Or accepted the few small things I was competent at? Who taught me to laugh as I lied? And who was it made me hesitate about what I had come to believe about the Moth? Who made me move from just an interest in "characters" to what they would do to others? But above all, most of all, how much damage did I do?

Charlie Jane Anders - "All the birds in the sky"

Deadman Wonderland

Enjoyable anime about a prison and guys fighting with "sin", their blood.

Deap Vally - "Gonna Make My Own Money"

Raw, bit like Janis Joplin. Rock and screaming.

Once upon a time ... in Hollywood

Enjoyable enough Quentin Tarantino film.

Ariana

Scandinavian film about a ship set out to Mars that gets thrown off its course without being able to return, following its inhabitants over the years. Enjoyable.

Adrian Tchaikovsky - "Children of Time"

Amazing book about a broken earth whose civilization set out on large ships like Gilgamesh, trying to see the universe with human life.

Gilgamesh clashes with a planet that was terraformed, but a nanovirus aimed at speeding up monkey evolution, did this to porta labila, jumping spider. The world of spiders and the world of a desintegrating space ship are beuatifully told and intermeshed.

Jojo Rabbit

Wonderful funny film about a young boy growing up at the end of WW2, blind fanatical nazi, with an imaginary Hitler next to him, who discovers his mum has been hiding a Jewish girl in their attic.

Fun, silly, weird.

Same director as "Hunt for the wilderpeople".

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Very 70s. Found through Nick Cave's "The Red Letters". Reminds me of proper "Queen I" and "Queen II"

Their "Delilah" is fun.
"Next" is almost cabaretesque!

Black Box Recorder

Bit like Nouvelle Vague in style; soft sultry female voice, strange Eels-like lyrics ("life is unfair / kill yourself or get over it")
Enjoyable but a bit repetitive over time (or if you're not really paying attention.)

Mid90s

Okay film about young boy joining a skater group in LA.  Nothing really special, but enjoyable.

How to deliver constructive feedback in difficult situations

https://medium.com/s/please-advise/the-essential-guide-to-difficult-conversations-41f736e63ccf

Really good read on difficult conversations and how to distinguish perception vs observation, &etc.

essay - "How knitters got knotted in a purity spiral"

https://unherd.com/2020/01/cast-out-how-knitting-fell-into-a-purity-spiral/

Short essay about purity spirals, where everything is relative - purity only exists in comparison to non- or less-pure - and how unchecked, these spiral out of control.

Sad takeaway? This is not gonna change.

Twin Temple - "Satan's a Woman"

The looks of a goth/death metal band, the sound of rockabilly.
Pretty amazing.

Robin Sloan - "Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore"

Typical "blogger style" 35-ish old writer book.  Okay so far.

His description of Google and hackers irritates the fuck out of me. You cannot spread a compute job to all of Google "for three seconds". That does make zero sense. Fuck sake.

Sex Education

Great series, and some great music.

Chip Tayler and the new Ukranians - "Fuck all the perfect people"
Louis Armstrong - "A kiss to build a dream on"

Denis Johnson - "The largesse of the sea maiden"

The semi-autobiographical stuff is not great. It's not bad. I'm just not that interested. But there are beautiful parts in the early stages of the book.




This morning I was assailed by such sadness at the velocity of life - the distance I have travelled from my own youth, the persistence of the old regrets, the new regrets, the ability of failure to refresh itself in novel forms - that I almost crashed the car.



She said how much she'd been hurt, and how badly she wanted to forgive me, but she didn't know whether she could or not - she hoped she could - and I assured her, from the abyss of a broken heart, that I hoped so too, that I hated my infidelities and my lies about the money, and the way I'd kept my boredom secret, and my secrets in general, and Ginny and I talked, after forty years of silence, about the many other ways I'd stolen her right to truth.

1917

Breath taking film by Sam Mendes about two boys in WW I who need to find a regiment and stop the attack as to avoid a trap set by the Germans. Mostly continuous shot, amazing camera work. The scene where he runs through a night city only lit by flares repeatedly send up is amazing.

Simply beautiful.