March 2, 2024

Updates from February

Hello! I am writing you from the theoretical auspices of a brand new personal website. (Yes, just like the one I launched last year. And in 2022.)

No fancy domain this time: it’s back, Casino Royale—style, to some old-fashioned roots. I’m back to writing on jmduke.com.

Work is busy; life is busy. I’m proud of myself for having carved out a little time to have a digital garden of my own again, as I had missed it — missed this — in my life.

I hope you are doing well.

Things I have reviewed

• The E-Myth Revisited (1995, ★★★★★), the first useful business book I’ve read in quite some time;
• Berlin Game (1983, ★★★★), a deeply competent spy thriller which renewed my faith that authors not named le Carré could write in this genre competently;
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2024, ★★★★), which picked up the mantle dropped by Atlanta in terms of combining aesthetic pleasure, surreal escapade, and emotional nuance;
• Killers of the Flower Moon (2024, ★★★★★), a long and rewarding treatise on evil and/in America;
• Homicide (1990, ★★★★), a richer text than most of Mamet’s “clever but hollow” filmography;
• Broadchurch (2013, ★★★★), a dynamic set of performances from Tennant and Colman that make up for a fairly average everything else.

(Currently working my way through: Attack on Titan (Season 4), Farm RPG, Frieren, Monster, Taskmaster, The Club Dumas, Crystal Project, and The Legend of the Galactic Heroes.)

Things I have written

• Years are magic wands, which was a followup to Vibes and years;
• A slightly disparaging review of Gosling’s Old Rum;
• Some vague thoughts on Buttondown’s newest analytics rewrite.