Category Archives: Culture
A Typical Severance Episode
One thing I love about Severance is that there’s no such thing, especially in this second season, as a “typical” Severance episode. Love and also kinda hate. Because after last week’s emotional rollercoaster revelations about Gemma Scout aka Ms Casey, … Continue reading
The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan
Marcin Wichary’s deep dive into the engraving font Gorton is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen on the internet in ages. Even if you’re not a font person — I certainly am not — you’ll find this fascinating … Continue reading
The Oscar Cup
So the awards season has finally come to a close. We can get back to thinking about movies as art and entertainment and not talking them and all the people involved in making them like racehorses or sports teams.
Looking Out
It’s amazing to think that Trump has been in power for just over a month. So much damage in so little time. I’d love to see more reporting on the actual on-the-ground human effects of Trump and Musk’s actions rather … Continue reading
The Handmaiden’s Tale
Yesterday, for the dozenth time, I mistakenly referred to the Korean movie The Handmaiden as The Handmaid’s Tale, causing great confusion. Will this curse ever be lifted?
Next Steps
A couple of months ago I realised that my impression of two nineties bands, Sloan and Yo La Tengo, was completely wrong. I had somehow gotten it into my head that Sloan was a jokey version of Weezer and Yo … Continue reading
PDA Memories
Just remembering that record scratch moment when I realised that PDA no longer stood for personal digital assistant. Oh, so those celebrities aren’t actually into the latest Palm or Clie or Treo. Makes sense.
Juna
Well, this was not what I expected when I checked to see whether Clairo had made any videos for her new album. Absolutely genius! Of course, it put me in mind of this prior art.
Pavement – Witchi Tai To
When Pavement played the first show of their recent reunion tour, they finished off with this cover of Native American jazz pioneer Jim Pepper’s Witchi Tai To. Such a lovely and positive vibe with which to end the show and … Continue reading
Just Some Buttons
I want to get a new non-phone eReader — although I love my iPhone Mini’s size I’d like to see more than seven words on a page — and the main feature I care about is that it have page-turn … Continue reading
New Love Glow
What kind of monster, when meeting their brother’s ex-girlfriend at the pharmacy, would casually mention that he’s got that new love glow?
TAR
This was great — just so full of great scenes and much less straightforward than I’d expected. After just one watch I don’t really feel I have a handle on what this film is about or trying to say. But … Continue reading
Irma Vep Saves the Day
I had to bail on High Life but Irma Vep saved the day. Continue reading
Writing in “Chinese”
Lovely story on Language Log about an American prisoner in Japan in the 1980s teaching themselves “Chinese” and using it to send a special message to a member of the consulate staff.
Gathering Crickets
A quiter and calmer approach to playing Ghost of Tsushima. Continue reading
Denser Than a Hockey Puck
Will I ever learn? On a whim, I looked up the lyrics for the Malkmus song Old Jerry and the line “Art is denser than a hockey puck” is supposedly “Heart is denser than a hockey puck”. What nonsense! I’m … Continue reading
Hand in Hand
This was almost certainly unintended, but Shiv’s hand coldly placed on Tom’s as they drove away felt like a negative echo of Mr Darcy touching Ms Bennet’s as he helped her into her carriage.
That Was Close
Phew! That was close. Pretty sure nobody noticed but I just deleted a post in which I questioned the wisdom of a multinational conglomerate releasing a new gaming product. Luckily I remembered that I don’t really care what multinational conglomerates … Continue reading
Skipping Over
I have reached the point with Blue Rev where the songs I used to skip over — Pomeranian Spinster and Tile By Tile among others — are now the ones I skip to.