[a pleasurable headache] war through a screen
It's been a wild two weeks again. My aim to finish two short stories before the end of the year is well on track, but real life is trying to have the last word.
Some kind of sleep regression (there's never a definitive reason) has meant Florence has been getting up at all hours the evening (and very early morning) and taking an age to get back to sleep.
I stubbed my little toe on a door frame and somehow broke said toe (the door frame still stands, despite my verbal barrage). Despite that I've managed to be consistent with a whole bunch of habits and practices which all has a knock on effect. Small wins often trumps big wins sporadically every time.
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Links
The Killer, and the meaning of David Fincher’s product placement
https://filmstories.co.uk/features/the-killer-and-the-meaning-of-david-finchers-product-placement/
A nice piece at Film Stories by Ryan Lambie on the use of brands and products in Fincher's latest.
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The 100 best movies of the 1970s
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/100-best-movies-of-the-1970s/
Another newsletter, another list-based article, this time from Far Out magazine. Admittedly, there are some interesting-sounding movies at the lower end of this list that I had not heard of. Moving further up the list the usual suspects start to emerge. YMMV.
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+003: Desert Strike EP
https://canonfire.net/post/733968866847457280/003-desert-strike-ep
A new site to my usual rotation, but one I will be checking out in the future after I peruse its archive. This one covers the EA game, Desert Storm and the EP of the same name that it inspired by Kuwaiti musician Fatima Al-Qadiri.
"It made me think about my own relationship with games. I was born at the end of the Gulf War, in Saudi Arabia, and shortly after moved to Chicago, where I’d spend most of my life. I grew up watching the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq from a distance, and hearing about the Egyptian revolution through phone calls from my father’s family. I grew up experiencing war through a screen."
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(CYBER)PUNK IS DEAD
https://bloodknife.com/cyberpunk-is-dead/
Molly Noise on Cyberpunk and 'future shock'.
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Star Wars Subjectivities: On Andor Translating Theory into Community Action
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2023/11/star-wars-subjectivities-on-andor.html
A fantastic piece on the political underpinnings, especially where collective action is concerned, on one of my favourite bits of TV in recent years, S1 of Andor. Spoilers abound.
"While these are only a handful of examples, what makes Andor a potentially powerful tool for disseminating ideas is that the show takes seriously the cultural impact of Star Wars and uses that impact—the nascent ideas of empire, rebellion, freedom—to critique, inspire, and demonstrate direct action. As an academic tool, Andor offers a cultural touchstone that can be used as a translating tool to connect less accessible ideas—empire, the panopticon, settler colonialism, extractive industries—with a story many in the U.S. think they know: Star Wars. Sylvia Wynter sees humans as hardwired for story, as evidenced in the Western world by the reliance on biblical and Darwinian origin stories, which have been disseminated by white colonizers. Wynter pulls from Frantz Fanon to propose a new description of humanity that acknowledges the human reliance on story, something that Wynter sees as unique to the species."
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This Essay on Bluey is Called “For Real Life”
https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2023/11/21/bluey-for-real-life/
"When I say Bluey is relatable, I’m referring to the most minute details. When I see the back of the Heeler family’s car, I see the back of my own, scattered with bits of snack and abandoned reusable water bottles, coloring books and broken crayons. Discussing the Bluey phenomenon in the New York Times, Brumm says that with the show, “I wanted to get to the core of what’s in the engine room of a family.” If that’s true, the Heeler engine runs a lot like my family’s, and the fact that the show is so universally popular serves as a soothing, normalizing influence. If Bandit and Chilli are going through it, too, and if we all love Bandit and Chilli, then we must all be doing OK."
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I'm off to try and not injure myself again, see you in two!