[A Pleasurable Headache] Everyone I meet who’s active on the internet looks tired as fuck in real life.
Updates & Fuel for the tank
There’s not a lot of links this week I’m afraid. My reading has mostly been of the book variety the past few weeks, namely the second book in Joseph Knox’s Aidan Waits series, The Smiling Man. The books follow the (mis)fortunes of DC Aidan Waits as he becomes embroiled in the darker underbelly of modern-day Manchester.
The Smiling Man has a classic ‘locked room’ setup with the titular male being found in a high-rise hotel long since closed. The central mystery also draws elements from the real life Somerton Man case.
Waits as a character is always teetering on self-implosion, par for the course in a detective series. However, there is a weight to his actions. As the novel begins Waits finds himself relegated to the grave yard shift with no chance of promotion or salvation due to his actions in the first book.
Part of the tension in the book comes from Waits often dangling by a thread in terms of his own psyche. This time around elements of his fractured childhood start to become relevant, informing the story and his actions throughout.
To me though the real star of the story is Manchester. Knox is very good in realizing the contradictory nature of the city, with alluring cathedrals of glass and chrome rubbing up against dead end alleys and industrial buildings gone to ruin.
Elsewhere, I took in Bull, a film directed by Paul Andrew Williams with Kill List‘s Neil Maskell in the title role. This one is a grimy, violent revenge movie with elements of horror often bubbling to the surface. Bull, a mob enforcer, resurfaces ten years after he was last seen with the aim of being reunited with his son. Bull treads on very similar ground to the excellent Dead Man’s Shoes, right down to the mob being a large fish in a very small pond. Maskell veers from a gruff council estate Wolverine to an unhinged ball of fury and masculine aggression. David Hayman is equally excellent in his role as the head of the small-fry crime family. Like Maskell, he moves between two personas, the gruff but friendly patriarch and a no-nonsense killer.
There are hints throughout that there is more to Bull’s return than meets the eye. The final moments of the film double down on this and I’m still not entirely sure it sticks the landing. All that said, if you like your revenge movies with a splash of grime and gore then Bull will serve you well.
Finally, I also began to dig into the truly excellent How To with John Wilson. The show is a docuseries with each episode ostensibly about how to do something - make small talk, memorize things, or taste wine. Like The Smiling Man, How To is very much defined by the city it takes place in, namely New York. As Wilson narrates the episode there are often brief shots of everyday life in New York, often used as a visual gag or a play on words. Additionally, as Wilson begins to delve into each subject he will often interact with eccentric and odd characters, veering off onto wild narrative tangents before somehow, often beautifully, tying it back into the episode’s central premise.
The first episode, on making small talk, often plays on the notion of people needing to fill the silence when interacting with another human being, often divulging information that is intimate and profound. To me it’s the perfect encapsulation of all of the episodes that follow, where so much information is willingly given up, merely by the fact that a camera is present.
Halfway through the first episode Wilson visits a travel agent with the hopes of booking a vacation to relax. She suggests Cancun. Whilst waiting for the computer system to catch up, the agent begins to make small talk, telling Wilson about her ex-husband, their ultimately disastrous marriage and what her expectations are of whatever relationship comes next. Wilson leaves baffled, dumbfounded that strangers will offer so much just to fill silence.
Later, Wilson finally goes to Cancun where his attempts at making small talk are a complete failure (I will not spoil the humor that comes with the dawning reality of this sequence). Later though he manages to converse with another guest who he has befriended earlier in the vacation. Initially the conversation is all surface, the weather, pets, etc. Then, before you know it, the conversation is suddenly in deeper waters, talking about grief, loss and the need to escape the ravages of modern life.
It is the perfect episodic manifesto for this wonderfully oddball, sweet and poignant show.
Elsewhere, I’m coming to the end of composing another short story. This time it’s a body/surreal horror centered on running, legacy and the concept of pain itself. A huge part of my consistency this past few weeks has been a regular Zoom hangout with a bunch of other writers and creators. We chat about our various projects before everyone mutes their mics and creates for the next 25 minutes. Then we chat again for 5 minutes about how it went, any surprises or obstacles we discovered before pressing on with another 25 minutes.
It’s incredibly hard to go across to Twitter or elsewhere on the web when you look up from your words and see several more windows of faces all writing, scripting or drawing. It’s a great accountability tool and a real level up in terms of getting words on the page.
Links
“I have no doubt that history will remember…” – Medal of Honor: Airborne
https://superchartisland.com/medal-of-honor-airborne/
Super Chart Island goes through the history of video games using the UK Video Games chart as means to explore it.
This entry is on military FPS Metal of Honor: Airborne. What follows is an interesting exploration of historical accuracy vs a game’s need to ‘entertain’.
“During the real mission, as described in memoirs and interviews with soldiers, sourced by Beever for his book D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (2009), and other historical records, the American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne were instructed to “take no prisoners” by their commanding officer. Alongside a landing that was confused and scattered, the day ahead led to several recorded instances of members of the 82nd and 101st Airborne executing or attempting to execute prisoners of war. In the case of Audoville-Le-Hubert (the actual small village the game is based on) this led to the reported massacre of up to 30 wounded German soldiers captured near Audoville.”
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Donald Glover Interviews Donald Glover (via The Two Fisted Homeopape)
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/donald-glover-interviews-donald-glover
This is an excellent interview with the man himself, by the man himself.
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Lie to me: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2022/06/30/lie-to-me-mission-impossible/
Film analysis institution David Bordwell runs through a key scene from Brian De Palma’s Mission Impossible. The scene in question comes towards the end of the movie where Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt questions the motives of Jon Voight’s Jim Phelps.
The piece examines how De Palma conveys Hunt’s mistrust of the scenario Phelps is laying out and how the scene changed between drafts.
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‘A massive betrayal’: how London’s Olympic legacy was sold out
This piece from The Guardian becomes ever more timely with every passing day. The promised ‘affordable’ housing and advantages post-Olympics never came to pass. Instead soulless developments out of reach of the vast majority of Londoners stand tall and empty.
It will be no surprise to find the man responsible for most of this chicanery is the recently departed Prime Minster of the UK, then in his mayor of London role. Vile.
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I’m off to reset and recharge for all the week is going to throw at me. See you in two!