I used to post a lot on twitter and then twitter happened and now I’m not really there anymore and neither are a lot of people I would typically follow there – though it’s fifty-fifty on whether that’s because I only look at the “vroooom” motorsport list and not my following or because they’ve actually stopped posting there like I have.

Parts of it are like the post-livejournal splintering. Parts of it are worse because that was so long ago and some of my friends are no longer on the planet for me to be able to follow them to a new social media platform and it feels like I’m leaving them behind, though they’re not there to be left behind. If you get me.

There’s elements of keeping a dead loved one’s phone number in your phone/address book.

I read a lot of email newsletters and of course, I have a backlog of unread newsletters but once again it’s like stepping back into a better time, where the world felt better (though of course, these newsletters are all written during a time AFTER the last time I retreated into the past they offered that I can’t even remember what that event that sent me there was).

Trying to figure out what newsletters in my sidebar I’m still subscribed to and what ones are missing – I guess I’ll have to come back to this one.

I asked someone what their favourite shape was recently and now I’m gently spiralling around the sound of I-S O-S CE-LES

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

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While February 2023 feels like it was only a few weeks ago and I’m sort of wondering what I could have done all year, I also know that I did do some stuff.

I spent Eurovision week in Norfolk and another couple of weeks in Malaysia. I saw Loveless (twice), Asgeir, Dave Hause, Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, Hozier, ThxSoMch and Sleep Token play live (and have already bought tickets for a few gigs next year). I went to the penultimate e-prix of the season in London and saw FE cars whizz about making their souped-up milk float noises (affectionate).

I did not really see that many new films – last year there were 25 and this year there are only 13. Partly, I feel like there just wasn’t a lot I felt like seeing at the London Film Festival but also, I did have kind of a general meh feeling about going to my local cinema. Was there even anything I might have seen in another year? I can only think of “The Marvels” and maybe there wasn’t anything else or I just didn’t hear about other films to make me go and see them.

Anyway, those 13 films in reverse order of how much I liked them, as is customary for such things:

• The Monkey King – I get that Monkey is kind of annoying, but I’d thought other interpretations had a kind of loveable scamp quality to him on occasion that this one just didn’t have. It was kind of limp.
• Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine – This was just an hour long documentary about the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which did its job and told me about that but you can see how The Monkey King had to be poor to be less liked than a film that was merely efficient and functional.
• Behind the Mountains – There’s some weird pacing choices and the main character just kind of gets angry sometimes and doesn’t really seem to talk to anyone about why he does the stuff he does.
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Kept things going at a reasonable pace but might have benefitted from reusing stuff from previous films a bit less.
• Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre – I saw this on the flight back from Malaysia, so I expect I must have seen an edited version but this is the same airline that edited out the word “Jew” from Sandman but not the word beginning with C meaning vulva. I don’t think any edits would have made too much difference in all honesty since this film delivers everything you’d expect from a Jason Statham film directed by Guy Ritchie.
• The Pigeon Tunnel – John Le Carré does have a very interesting life story, and is an excellent storyteller as you might expect from someone who has written so many popular books. I’m not sure I’m entirely sold on Errol Morris’ interview technique generally, but the contrast between them was entertaining at least.
• One Life – I already knew about the Kindertransport and Sir Nicholas Winton before I saw this film and I’ve seen the relevant clips on youtube a few times – so nothing happens in this film that I did not expect but it was still worth seeing how some man just slogging away at paperwork managed to impact so many lives.
• The Book of Clarence – Since this one is related to Jesus, I took my Mum to see it at LFF and she had a great time, particularly since the director was there to talk about the film. I liked the choice to make it in that 50s/60s biblical epic style.
• Fingernails – This was good, but like I’ve said elsewhere, I never want to see it again. I also feel like not everyone in the screening I saw was expecting a science fiction kind-of-dystopia setting.
• Barbie – I mean…she’s everything.
• John Wick: Chapter 4 – For a lot of the year, this film was at the top of my 2023 list and it’s only because I saw two outstanding films in October that it’s in third place. Like the previous films, this is full of deeply satisfying action, beautifully shot and exists in a universe where you don’t need to question how John Wick gets to the places around the world that he shows up in, he just does.
• COPA 71 – FIFA are literally the worst and these footballers are absolute legends. The amount of archival footage was fantastic, especially since the entire event basically got deleted from football history.
• The Taste of Things – I could live in this film. Ok, not literally in that time period because I do enjoy having a microwave, but just put me at those dinner tables. A film about love, that feels like the smoothest, most velvety chocolate ganache and I would absolutely devour it, if you could make the experience of a film tangible.

Definitely see that last one.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

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The new Dave Hause album is SO good. Just, ugh, great great great.

The gig last month was great too and reminded me* that I should go listen to live music more often – something to look forward to and it’s a real mood booster when I’ve been. It’s always “why did you book this Past-me, I don’t feel like going out” beforehand and “Past-me you are a genius, this was the best idea” afterwards. So I’ve added in Postmodern Jukebox and Hozier between now and the Loveless gig I already have a ticket for and I see some time in my near future when I need to sit down and see what else is out there that I can put in around my existing commitments. Definitely see what’s more local to me than the nearest city too.

The other thing to figure out is the crossposter to my other blog – I think the one to Dreamwidth is still going fine but the one to my other WordPress install went wonky a while back and I’m not sure that the plugin I use for other stuff, that could also crosspost, would allow for the posting to Dreamwidth too. It’s been twenty years, I should probably learn how to write a WordPress plugin myself at this point.

Took Mum to see John Wick 4, which she loved and I think she scandalised her friends at church who didn’t expect someone her age to enjoy so much out and out violence. I think it’d be weirder that when you have Michelle Yeoh being a boss at martial arts action movies, a retiree with a similar kind of background wouldn’t love martial arts films too.

* that and seeing Asgeir at the beginning of March.

Mirrored from half girl, half robot.

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