What I Got Into - October 6, 2024
I’ve recently exited a particularly long phase of no new inputs: periods where my curiosity for the work of others is drained. It’s not always a bad thing - I’m often fixated on and being productive in my own work - but it eventually feels bad and must end. Following this I’m always ravenous. Here’s some of what I’ve enjoyed this week.
Movies
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Tsukamoto, 1989)
Mike and I kicked off our October horror movies with this depraved metal fuckfest, and were not disappointed. One of those movies that creates a lot of “ah, that’s where [successive act] got it” brain synapses, but also pure enjoyment in its own right. Disgusting and mercifully short. Check it out!
The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (Argento, 1970)
Messy little giallo from early in Argento’s career, and (so I’m told, by experts) formative to the genre itself. Lots of babes screaming as the knife enters from a black leather hand. A few great “here’s what we think computers probably can do” scenes.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (Selick, 1993)
I was obsessed with this movie for a year in college. Then I lost my taste for it until I had kids in my life, and beautiful early-autumn nights to watch it outdoors. There are so many places the movie falls short, yet it’s so original and painstakingly assembled that it truly doesn’t matter, like the most wonderful kitsch object in your home. The image of the tubby corpse-child, eyes stained with tears, wailing “there goes Christmas!” got a howl out of me and the other parents.
Books
The Big Sleep (Chandler, 1939)
The right book removes the whole chore of reading and is pure pleasure. This is just what I needed in my slow start back to reading. Lawless mugs, conniving broads, and a classic 30s mystery, all painted on a sprawling California roadmap. I’d like to follow this one with The Long Goodbye because I like not making choices.
Games
Case of the Golden Idol: The Lemurian Vampire DLC (Color Gray Games, 2023) Just slurping up the last meager drops of this game before I sit dormant and wait for the sequel. The DLCs were diminishing returns, getting far too convoluted and requiring you to collect words like “to” and assemble essays from 50 different conversations and notes, but castaway-era Zubiri Kerra was my boyfriend and I had to see it through for him.
Judero (Talha Kaya, 2024)
Occasionally I buy a game just to hand it to my brother and watch him play, and Joe came through on this one. It’s such a joy to see a game of such blood and tears reach completion. Although I can’t comment on the gameplay, aesthetically it’s a strange and soulful return to the lost art of stop-motion assets, in the vein of The Neverhood. Wonderful voice acting and delightful movement.
A Space For the Unbound (Mojiken, 2023)
Been playing this with my son on weekends for a while. So far, lots of impossible-to-flub fetch quests and puzzles that have me feeling bored. For a point n’ click beginner though, it’s just what the doctor ordered. The graphics are beautiful and the UI is intuitive and fun. My son loves that you can pet (and name) every cat you encounter.
Starting a new paragraph to say: I’m trying hard not to blame every game praised for its “great story” for not actually having one; players’ expectations in this area are simply not high. But can I get a game with a good story ova hea?
Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope, 2018)
I’m a miserably inattentive player - especially at the end of the night - and it took me about 90 minutes of fumbling about before I actually understood the loop of this game. Now I’m freshly addicted and loving it, and already anticipating how sad I’ll be when the book is filled in.
Music
Dance, No One’s Watching (Ezra Collective, 2024)
On rare occasions I’m reminded that almost none of the dance music I listen to is made by physical instruments. Ezra Collective is the cure with their breath-hot rhythms, intimate coat room run-ins, and dollar wine-fueled manifestos.
Imaginal Disk (Magdalena Bay, 2024)
Bless these nutballs for such an ambitious follow-up to Mercurial World. I’ve only scratched the surface but this feels like another banger for me. This band does for me what Grimes did the decade previous, and Of Montreal the decade before that. You can’t predict where that love will come from, and isn’t that special?
Devotion (Jessie Ware, 2012)
Cracking this one open for pure nostalgia, it doesn’t dazzle like it used to but the pain is still exquisite. I love that Jessie Ware “went disco” after this one, those albums are lots of fun, but I’ll never connect with her like I did this one year, when I was looking for the desperate bargaining in songs like “Running” and “Still Love Me”, the furied grief of “Who Says No To Love?” and the troubled self-mythology of “Night Light” and “Wildest Moments”. Take me back to my sorrow, only briefly.
Food
At the risk of this being a lifestyle blog, I’ll try to document some of the great meals I’ve had. Food is so much more ephemeral than anything else here, so why not savor it however I can? (Note that if you see it here, it is most likely vegan.)
For our 9th wedding anniversary Mike and I had dinner at Soda Club in NYC. Fantastic pasta tasting menu, including 3 filled pastas that put me out of commission before the last bite. The final dish (the one I sadly couldn’t finish) was my favorite and by far the richest: a ravioli with lemon curd and ricotta. A great experience that I hope to repeat, but I’ll order off the menu next time. Not wanting to make choices gets me in all kinds of trouble.
It was a busy week, and we didn’t manage to cook a special dinner on Rosh Hashanah. Fortunately NY’s Orchard Grocer provided matzo ball soup, Russ & Daughters had the pickle hookup, we picked up a great loaf of challah at Crust back in Philly, and some pomegranates and apples given by a houseguest went great in a salad. Add a few cans of diet Dr. Brown’s Cherry and we were feasting Friday night. Shana tova!