Issue 14: Dorothy
Welcome to the fourteenth issue of Everything Is Made Up
Hi! It’s been a while.
This is the fourteenth issue of my newsletter it is dedicated to Dorothy Ashby. I’m gonna try a different format for these newsletters which should hopefully be more interesting. They’ll be split into three categories:
News (personal and/or what interests me in general news)
What I’ve been watching
What I’ve been listening to
What I’ve been reading
Something that interested me
As always, if you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see more or less of, let me know and if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them in the next issue. Think of it like a Q&A session (if I get enough).
Also, check out my Patreon!
Okay, enough dithering. Let’s get it started.
News
So a helluva lot has happened since the last issue. Probably the biggest changes have been a promotion at work and moving house just a few days ago. These are also the most positive changes in 2024; overall, the year hasn’t been kind to my mental health and I’ve had more downs than ups. I have my birthday and Christmas left (both of which will be spent in the South of France) and then I’ll be glad for the year to end.
What I’ve been watching
I won’t go into everything I’ve watched in the last 11 months or so (you can read my Letterboxd list for this year on my website). But on Friday, I watched Nemesis, the 1992 cyberpunk action film directed by Albert Pyun. It stars Olivier Gruner as an LAPD bounty hunter who terminates androids but soon becomes disillusioned with his job and wants to leave, but not before the LAPD threaten him with death unless he does “one last job”. It’s classic 90s cyber schlock and I freaking love it. It won’t be to everyone’s taste but if you like early 90s sci-fi dystopian movies starring European kickboxers-turned-actors, you’ll enjoy Nemesis.
What I’ve been listening to
While I’ve not listened to as many albums as I did last year (in 2023, I went through 730 albums), I’ve got through a fair amount. My two favourites that I’ve enjoyed over the last few months have been SiR’s HEAVY and Charlotte Day Wilson’s Cyan Blue. They’re both beautiful R&B records with beautiful lyrics and beautiful vocals. I love the production and arrangements; nothing feels stale or out of place. They’re two of my favourite albums of the year, alongside two other powerhouses: Hyperdrama by Justice and A LA SALA by Khruangbin. I’ve been eating GOOD when it comes to new music in 2024.
What I’ve been reading
I haven’t been reading a lot this year which is no surprise as I don’t read a lot anyway (I should rectify that and I keep saying it every year—someone hold me accountable!)
I have finished 3 books this year so far:
Cut-throat Celts (Horrible Histories) by Terry Deary - a classic from my childhood
Akin by Emma Donoghue - a tender story about an older man and his great-nephew on a journey of personal discovery in the South of France
You Are Here by David Nicholls - it’s a David Nicholls romcom novel involving a white British man and a white British woman awkwardly falling in love over time. I’m a sucker for these narratives so I loved it
Other books I’ve been reading on and off include Black Meme: A History of The Images That Make Us by Legacy Russell and Ask Iwata by the late Satoru Iwata.
Something that interested me
I found this article by Vincent Warmerdam the other day where quoted Martin Fowler’s idea of replacing “best practices” with “sensible defaults”:
Fowler mentioned that he prefers the term "sensible default," and that just clicked for me. The idea behind "best practice" is that there's a universally correct way to do something which really sounds like a one-size-fits-all approach. But in the real world, every business is different, every department is different and every day is different. What works great for one team or one project could be completely wrong for another.
"Best practice" does not acknowledge this. "Sensible default," on the other hand, says that while there may be a good starting point, it’s not necessarily the only right way. It's an option you should evaluate, tweak, or even discard depending on your specific situation. So much more appropriate!
Well, I’m gonna make like an egg and beat it. Thanks for reading and join me next time for more of the same. Any comments or suggestions, get in touch! And if you'd like to help out with my content creation endeavours, check out my Patreon.