Death to Realism! 026
Death to Realism! 026
Hello! If my estimation is correct, based on the number of issues and when I approximately remember starting this, I've now been doing these updates for a whole year! I hope they're still a pleasant presence in your inbox. If you need a refresher on the origin & nature of these bi-weekly updates, check out the first issue before reading on.
What's New?
So, a year in, I'm giving this newsletter a bit of a fresh start. It should now be PWYW, down to zero to subscribe, and I believe you can make changes to whatever level works best for you going forward either from the links at the bottom of the email, or the main subscription page here. I still won't really be doing consistent separate tiers or rewards for people who are paid vs not, so this is entirely up to you and I'm happy for any form of support my difficult-to-monetize work gets, especially if it's more people reading and thinking about it.
If this week's news has also motivated you to get even further off Twitter, you can find me on the fediverse here.
Coming Soon
I wrapped up edits for a piece that will be appearing in print last night, so I'm excited to hopefully be able to share more on that soon. Plaintext Distro prep for Glasgow Zine Fair in July is also ongoing. The back catalog will be mostly available again, and I've already received one new submission and am aware of several in the works, so it's looking like we'll have a really fun and varied spread of things to show off. We'll be tabling at the festival for in-person purchases on July 3rd, and if you'd like your work to be available there please read over the site and submit it to me by June 17th.
The Rec Room
David Kanaga's most recent talk on Wagner and videogame music is now available online, building on his work on Soft Valkyrie, which I love
This set of highlights from the Syrian Cassette Archives is also a great jumping off point, I reccomend the one from 2007
I was also able to go to the recently re-opened Burrell Collection on a day off recently, my first trip to any museum or gallery in a very long time. I know, because I got a little choked up by this little statue.
And in local birdwatching news, no ducklings yet, but I have been able to spot moorhen chicks at the local duck pond, which essentially look like the balls with feet of legend.
I've Been Reading
I finished Bleeding Edge, which I loved, and have to almost constantly stop myself from going on in depth about (read it, because it's good, but also so there's more people who know what I'm taking about...) and (dangers of attempting to plan out reading) have started on The Pornographers, a short-ish novel by Akiyuki Nozaka that I spotted on my partner's newly unpacked bookshelf and realized I had been meaning to get around to it the first time I saw it. I also picked up a nice and cheap Clive Barker paperback, The Damnation Game, from the local Oxfam, figuring that I may as well try the source material, since every film of his I've seen has been pretty satisfying.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman is one of my favorite novels, and I was initially anxious but now excited to hear that her next book is a direct sequel, an excerpt of which has been published online. I also find Melinda Cooper's work on how "friendlier" and "smaller scale" social formations, like the family, or local small businesses, still have deep roots in consolidating political power, always informative and useful. Finally, this article about the complexities of digital film preservation and the impact digital film-making techniques have on film production and distribution in general was thought-provoking and wide-ranging.
I think that's all I have this bi-week! For new subscribers who have signed on since the last newsletter, you can check out the archive of past issues at any time!
Thank you again for your support,
Emilie