2020.01.24 Book Roundup

The books I’ve read so far this year:

DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD, Olga Tokarczuk
THE NIGHT PARADE OF ONE HUNDRED DEMONS, Matthew Meyer
DEATH WILL HAVE YOUR EYES, James Sallis
BATTLETECH: DECISION AT THUNDER RIFT, William H. Keith
THE BOOK OF YOKAI, Michael Dylan Foster
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, Thornton Wilder
THE ONLY HARMLESS GREAT THING, Brooke Bolander
CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN, Sayaka Murata

My brain has been on fire the last couple months so I had planned on reading a lot more light, escapist fare this year, but so far this has been mostly a lot of “capital-L” Literature. Probably some Maigret and more Battletech novels in the near-future. We’ll see.

The clear winner so far has been DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD (CA) (US).

I don’t want to say too much about the plot as a basic synopsis really doesn’t do it justice, but it concerns a hermit living in southern Poland, not far from the Czech border. One day, another of the hermits who lives near her dies under some mysterious circumstances and she begins to investigate what might have happened.

It’s an exceptional portrait of isolation, loneliness and mental illness. I can’t recall a protagonist I’ve related to more in a long time. I feel like I couldn’t be more like this person while having almost nothing in common with them. The extremes she believes in are pretty far from the ones in me, but the fervor of her dedication to them is eerily familiar.

“In a way, people like her, those who wield a pen, can be dangerous. At once a suspicion of fakery springs to mind – that such a Person is not him or herself, but an eye that’s constantly watching, and whatever it sees it changes into sentences: in the process it strips reality of its most essential quality – its inexpressibility.”

“Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.”

“You know what, sometimes it seems to me we’re living in a world that we fabricate for ourselves. We decide what’s good and what isn’t, we draw maps of meanings for ourselves . . . And then we spend our whole lives struggling with what we have invented for ourselves. The problem is that each of us has our own version of it, so people find it hard to understand each other.”

Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk

Currently Playing: Bomani Armah – “Read a Book“
Currently Reading: THE ARMORED SAINT, Myke Cole (CA) (US)

2020.02.23 Wagon Train to the Stars

There is new Star Trek today.

I started watching Star Trek when I was probably 7 or 8. I watched Next Generation with my Dad. My mom bought a bunch of the original series on VHS for us and I saw some of those and basically just kept watching whatever Star Trek was to hand. At some point I realized that I liked Star Trek more than Star Wars? They have nothing in common aside from the word STAR but for some reason, society demands you choose a favorite and at some point I switched my allegiance from long, long ago and far, far away to where no-one had gone before.

Since then, with the exception of Season 2 of Discovery (I’ll get to it), I’ve seen all the Trek series and movies and read my fair share of novels and comics.

I’ve been thinking about Star Trek a lot recently, prompted by this twitter thread by an American history professor about the colonialist tendencies of Next Generation. I think he makes a lot of very interesting points that I hadn’t considered. I thought about it a lot during the first episode of Picard (which I liked) and wondered if the teams creating new Star Trek have thought about these things? It was an interesting lens to watch the new episode through and I’m gonna keep watching and thinking.

With some of these new thoughts in mind I want to re-watch all the Star Trek movies and see how my feelings on them change. Prior to my doing so, here’s the definitive rankings in descending order:

Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country
Star Trek IV: Voyage Home
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek III: Search for Spock
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Final Frontier
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek Beyond
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness

Currently playing: MACHINEFABRIEK – “Stillness Soundtracks II”

Currently reading: CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN, Sayaka Murata (CA)(US)

2020.01.22 – Body. See: Snatched

I have a bunch of movie posters on the walls in my office. I spend so much time in this little white box that it’s nice to look up, from time to time, and see pictures of stuff that bring me joy. (Yes. I also have pictures of my wife and children. Shut up.) One of the posters is for Don Siegel’s science fiction-horror classic “INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS”. It’s a really nice poster.

The film is based on a Jack Finney novel of the same name (that I swear I plan to read one day). It’s one of the great science fiction concepts that seems to always feel relevant. It’s also one of the best horror archetypes out there. Seeing something familiar that you see every day and one day suddenly knowing, deep in your gut, today it’s different.

There have been 4 direct adaptations of the novel (and it’s inspired probably dozens of other novels, shows and films):

The first, the aforementioned 1956 version that starred Kevin McCarthy.
Second, a 1978 remake directed by Philip Kaufman which in some ways is even greater than the original.
In 1993 Abel Ferrara directed “Body Snatcher” which is a pretty good pulp sci-fi horror that pales in comparison to the all-time classics it succeeds.
Finally in 2007 we have “The Invasion” directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel but it’s dogshit and the less said about it the better.

1956, 1978, 1993, 2007.

22 years between 1956 and 1978
15 years between 1978 and 1993
14 years between 1993 and 2007
13 years between 2007 and 2020

According to my calculations? We’re due for another Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie.

This is the first of a category of blog posts I’m calling “Brain Droppings” (in honor of the late, great George Carlin) in which to file these sort of stupid, unfinished thoughts that are of no value to anyone but I don’t need cluttering up my head.

Currently Playing: Kannibal – “(final)FANTASYWAVE(vii)”

Currently (still) Reading: ORIGAMY, Rachel Armstrong (CA) (US)

2020.01.21 Podcasts

I got into podcasts early enough that I would burn CDs of the shows I listened to to play on my Discman. I remember finding another person who listened to ANY podcast was exciting. Like they knew the secret handshake.

Today, everybody knows the handshake and there has never been a better time for listening to folks get way too excited about grizzly serial murder! Truly a gilded age.

Now, this may come as a surprise to you, but it is entirely possible to listen to 60+ hours of podcasts a week with nary a horrible psycho-sexual murder case among them! It is the breadth of subject matter (as well as the range in production quality) that makes the medium so interesting. Whatever the hell you’re into there’s probably 7 or 8 podcasts you can sample and a small but dedicated community somewhere on the internet arguing about which is best.

I listen to comedy podcasts, talk shows, video games coverage, anime discussion, deep dives into old tv shows and anime, film criticism, history, documentaries, futurism, daily journals, star trek fan shows, video game music podcasts, news, politics, economics and whatever “The Memory Palace” is (It’s good. Give it a listen). Every few months I troll through the pocket casts listings and subscribe to bunch of shows to sample and usually stick with a couple.

One sub-genre I’m interested in but haven’t dived into yet in is the “actual play” podcast. Podcasts of people playing some form of table-top role-playing game. It seems that this has become all the rage. Something called “Critical Role” is able to raise millions of dollars on kickstarters and my Twitter and YouTube feeds filled with cosplays of the characters. They look fun.

I’m going to start listening to “Friends At The Table” and see if that tickles my fancy. It advertises itself “…an Actual Play podcast about critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends”. Sounds pretty good so far. This season their setting apparently has Mechs in it and so, between my love of Austin Walker (who hosts) and giant robots, I think if there is a show that can get me into this area of podcasting, it’s this one. I’ll let you know how it goes.

For the interested I’m attaching this link to the podcasts I currently subscribe to. I’m always looking for more ambient music podcasts too so if you know of one I’m not subscribed to? “Holla at Ya Boy”

Podcast Subscriptions as of Jan 21, 2020

Currently Playing: Monster Hunter World OST

2020.01.20 Tools, Kit & Workspace

I’ve been reading about the different ways creators I like use notebooks. I finally started using notebooks when I started carrying a purse last summer (which it’s time to start thinking about replacing as it’s falling apart) and I’m still fiddling around trying different things in search of systems/routines that I like. I’ve been very resistant to the idea of the “bullet-journal” if only because the fervor with which they’re discussed by enthusiasts borders on the cultish. I have next to no design/artistic inclination so I don’t want to spend any time thinking about how I want to design/decorate a page in my notebook, but it’s interesting to think about how others are doing it and look for new ways to improve the way I operate.

As for the purse (not my “satchel” or “messenger bag”, it’s a damn purse, it’s fine.) I intentionally started with a small, cheap one as I wasn’t certain I’d stick with it. I’m certain now. I’m also certain that I should go a little bigger, and with more compartments (as well as some kind of change purse to keep in it as I have a shit-load of coins rattling around in the wretched thing now). I want room for the above-mentioned notebooks, my kindle, my external battery pack, a handful of usb sticks, wallet with a bit of room to spare for whatever special things I need that day.

It feels good to take stock of the kit I use every now and then, see what is working and what can be improved and if I’m feeling the energy for it make some changes and clean up, with my brain it’s best to ride these improvement/efficiency kicks as hard as possible and make it harder to slip into bad systems/habits once this particular manic episode is over, though also to be careful not to dig too greedily or too deep because if I get TOO ambitious I’m liable to end up with a half-finished mess when my brain turns against me. I must keep reminding myself of this as I’m now eyeing the mess that is my office and thinking “you know, a big external monitor mounted there in place of that white-board I never use might be just the thing…”, and “this scary bin full of 10 years worth of assorted cables should be sorted out!” or “hey! I bet I could build a shelf out of reclaimed driftwood!”

It’s a real tight-rope act in my head some days…

Currently Playing: Rubod & Stroudinsky – “Three Pianos and a Tape Machine (EP Version)

Currently Reading: THE ONLY HARMLESS GREAT THING, Brooke Bollander (CA) (US)

2020.01.19 Jerky Twitter

My relationship with twitter has changed over the years. Once, I was on it constantly, participating in the culture (this is code for: arguing about what anyone/everyone was/was-not outraged/enthused over at that moment. Lather, rinse, repeat). Over the years I’ve spent time tuning tweetdeck to only show me things that are useful/pleasurable and pruning the weeds that make their way in. It turns out twitter is alright if you do this and ensure to think of it as read-only (oh, and as long as you’re not a woman or person of colour.) As such, I have curated columns set up in my deck and things like notifications, mentions, main timeline etc are either removed altogether or dumped at the very end so I never see them by accident.

Today, for some reason, I decided to look at my notifications and discovered that I had been followed by a company purporting to be the “official beef jerky of e-sports”.

I don’t know WHY e-sports needs an official jerky? but they have one. I broke my own “read-only” policy and tweeted a joke (strong word) about being followed by said jerky company and that the internet had been a mistake. The result? Now myself and a friend who replied to my joke have now been contacted and followed by a second jerky brand, this one offering a monthly jerky subscription box, and they’re offering 25% off my first month.

Anyway, I’m going to delete my twitter account and move to Tibet to live as a mountain hermit. The internet was and is a mistake.

Currently Reading: ORIGAMY, Rachel Armstrong (CA) (US)

Currently Playing: Gaetir The Mountainkeeper – “Norðanátt”