So, as another year draws to a close...
Had a pretty good run of activity here for a few weeks in the middle of the year. That was weird. Could happen again, in terms of volume of posts, but probably not in total wordcount. Those posts were way too long for what I had to say. Anyway, got distracted by a few things, but lately have gotten back into more frequent reading of comics, especially now that I have appropriate eyewear to the task (I've needed reading glasses for a few years now, but was delayed in getting them first by the pandemic, then by general procrastination). It's fifty/fifty on whether that reading will result in a desire to write about what I'm reading.
(that graphic on the right is a random sampling of they kind of stuff I've gotten)
I've also now got a list of about six comic shops that I intend to hit every six months or so, which should give them time to replenish their stock. I also have a longer list of comic shops I'll probably never go near again, but that's neither here nor there. I'm kind of hoping in the next year I can mostly wipe out my list of older comics that I want that are in my price range and unlikely to be reprinted or legally available digitally.
So there'll be no shortage of stuff I can read and write about, if the urge arises. And that's just print stuff I own. Between that, the print and digital resources of the Toronto Public Library and the DC and Marvel "streaming" digital offerings getting closer to comprehensive (whenever I get around to subscribing to them), I'm not at any loss on things to read and write about.
And of course movies and TV are more accessible than ever. But still more often than not I tend to re-watch something (lately SOPRANOS, NEWSRADIO, PARKS AND RECREATION, THE GOOD WIFE or COMMUNITY) rather than watch something I haven't seen before. A few new to me things have caught my eye recently.
SEVERANCE was probably the most successful, with one season complete on AppleTV+, and more to come eventually. It's a science fiction show about a world where a corporation has developed a technology where employees' minds are bifurcated, so while they're at work they have no memory of the outside world and when they leave have no memory of work. That's all sinister sounding enough, but everything about the show compounds it, to the clues about the mysterious work our main cast of four (led by Adam Scott) is doing, hints about the past of the characters, various cultish activities and conspiracies both inside and outside the corporation which make the work/home divide much less firm than they'd have you believe. Nine episodes in the first season, it starts off a bit slow, but picks up, making you sorry by the end that you'll have to wait an indeterminate time for more. Definitely a show not to binge, though. Take at least a few days between episodes to let it sit in your head.
A few other things I watched on AppleTV+ while I had the service. THE AFTERPARTY was a mostly successful high-concept comedic murder mystery, where every episode was filmed with the trappings of a specific TV/film genre based on the character whose perspective is the focus. Doesn't completely work, but it was a worthwhile experiment. I'm not sure how it will sustain a second season, but if it's there whenever I re-up to watch more SEVERANCE I'll give it a look.
Which I probably wouldn't say about LOOT, the Maya Rudolph show about a recently divorced multi-billionaire who tries to find some meaning in her life and rehabilitate her reputation by working directly with the charitable foundation she was previously hands-off with. I don't know, I usually like Maya Rudolph, but I think I like her more in smaller doses. As a series lead she can be a bit much. This seemed to have the bones of an interesting show, and a pretty good cast, but it just didn't gel. Maybe having the lead be so ridiculously wealthy got in the way. It also seemed a bit odd how out of touch Rudolph's character was when it was clear the wealth wasn't something she was born with, but came to her in her adulthood. Anyway, not ruling out watching more, but won't seek it out.
Objectively THE MORNING SHOW is even worse, but it might just dip into the rarefied of being so bad you have to watch it. I mean, an absurdly expensive cast, great production values, incredibly self-important writing (and delivery of same) about what everyone should realize is a shallow subject matter, taking all the wrong lessons from the Aaron Sorkin school of scriptwriting. How can you not love it between shaking your head at how awful it is, and how little it realizes how awful it is? Oh yeah, I'll watch more, but I'd caution you about getting sucked into it.
Other than that, FOUNDATION was terrible, but I'll probably torture myself and watch more, and BLACK BIRD was okay, but seems to end a bit abruptly.
The rotating streaming service wheel has spun to a free 6 month subscription to Disney+, so I'll probably watch a lot of Marvel, Star Wars and Muppet stuff.
Movies I've also fallen way behind on new stuff in favour of revisiting old favourites. I'm still not willing to go back to... those big rooms where they charge you too much to watch movies with rude strangers in uncomfortable seats, with over-priced unappetizing food, and they don't even let you pause or rewind or turn on subtitles. What did we call those? Of the 2022 movies I've actually seen in 2022, I thought EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022) was easily the best. Of the 2021 movies I got around to seeing this year, DUNE (2021), CODA (2021) and NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021) are the ones I'd recommend. Got some time coming up, planning to catch up on some more recent stuff, including NOPE (2022) at the top of the list (I think the last two non-children's movies I've been to in the... theatre (?was that what they were called?) were Jordan Peele's two previous movies).
Since I've been driving a bunch lately, I've been listening to more music than I normally do, both from digging the old CDs out of the basement and listening to Spotify, as opposed to listening to the same 1400 songs I put on an MP3 player a few years ago that I can no longer modify because it uses an off-brand proprietary USB connection instead of a standard. I'd been kind of interesting to hear a few things I haven't heard in years, or occasionally go into deeper cuts beyond the dozen greatest hits for a few artists. As I may have mentioned before, my taste in music largely ossified back around the time I was 25, which is now officially more than half a lifetime ago, and I'm not sure anything can reach both my head and my heart at the same time as anything I heard before that, but sometimes something gets close.
Well, that's more than long enough, and I didn't really get to the point of what I meant to write about, just some rambling about stuff that I want to write about in more detail that history shows I probably won't. Maybe I'll get back to the other stuff later.
